A forgotten hamlet in late Victorian Oxfordshire, Lark Rise is a ready store of riches from a bygone age. Based on Flora Thompson's childhood memories, we wander the fields and rutted cart tracks with Laura, who grows up in a world of butterflies, singing, games and gossip. Cottage life in a lost England has all the charms of bee-keeping, sweethearts and May Day celebrations, set against difficulties of poaching, poverty and watching for the bailiff from the County Court. From the day she first stumbles over her alphabet we remain with Laura, fulfilling the words of a mysterious gypsy, that she will one day be loved by people she has never seen. The lasting treasure is knowing that once finished, Lark Rise to Candleford is there waiting to be read all over again.
544pp, 128mm x 196mm, softback, 2010