Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
I'm well into R. F. Delderfield's Long Summer Day, and what a pleasure after Artemis. The complete opposite -- not a lot of action, but a whole lot of superb writing, about a period in England that I know little about -- the Edwardian Era, starting with the end of the Boer War, and the coronation of Edward VII. This is a rich book that would be a wonderful read for the New Leaf Book Club, but it's probably a bit too long. I might just go ahead and nominate it for the It's All Relative theme regardless. |
Finished R. F. Delderfield's wonderful
Long Summer Day, the first book of his
A Horseman Riding By trilogy. This was a wonderful examination of Edwardian England, with the majority of the story taking place in Shallowford, a rural valley in Devon, but with the forces from the Suffragette Movement and the looming war with Germany impacting even this protected valley.
The story centres around Paul Craddock, a city-bred Lieutenant invalided out of the Boer War with a near fatal injury, who takes his inheritance from a scrap metal yard and buys a thirteen-hundred-acre estate in rural Devon that has been allowed to run down and become rather derelict. As the new squire, he knows nothing of farming, but through hard work, and the generous application of cash where (long) needed, turns around both the estate and the lives of his tenant farmers.
While the principal story revolves around rural England, Craddock and Shallowford aren't divorced from the forces shaping England and the world in the Edwardian Era. It essentially starts with the coronation of Edward VII (1902), and ends with the coronation of George V (1911), and encompasses the rise of the Women's Suffrage movement, substantial changes to the tax code by the Liberals, and the increasing naval might and militancy of Germany.
This is a wonderful example of R. F. Delderfield's ability to tell a story about people, places and times. The writing is elegant without being frothy, and always a delight. As
Books and Bookmen says: "It is always a pleasure to read R F Delderfield, because he never seems to be ashamed of writing well". This was an absolute delight, and goes right up near the very top of books I've read this year.
Highly recommended.
ETA: There
is an Audible version, but it's no better than so-so. Really, I'd suggest sticking to the eBook. It's KU in the US, and only £3.99 in the UK. And worth every penny.