Product Description

Flora Thompson's immortal trilogy, containing "Lark Rise", "Over To Candleford" and "Candleford Green", is a heartwarming portrayal of country life at the close of the 19th century. This story of three closely related Oxfordshire communities - a hamlet, the nearby village and a small market town - is based on the author's experiences during childhood and youth. It chronicles May Day celebrations and forgotten children's games, the daily lives of farmworkers and craftsmen, friends and relations - all painted with a gaiety and freshness of observation that make this trilogy an evocative and sensitive memorial to Victorian rural England.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1429 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

About the Author
Born in Juniper Hill, Oxfordshire, Flora Thompson left school at 14 to work in the local post office. She married young, and wrote mass-market fiction to help support her increasing family. In her 60s she published the semi-autobiographical trilogy combined as LARK RISE TO CANDLEFORD (1945). RICHARD MABEY is the author of some thirty books, including Whistling in the Dark: In Pursuit of the Nightingale, Beechcombings: the narratives of Trees, the ground-breaking and best-selling "cultural flora" Flora Britannica, and Gilbert White, which won the Whitbread Biography Award. His recent memoir Nature Cure was short-listed for three major literary awards. He writes for the Independent, the Guardian, Resurgence and Granta, and contributes frequently to BBC radio. He lives in Norfolk, in the Waveney Valley.

Customer Reviews

Just Remember - This Is Really A History Book!
Fans of the BBC adaptation should give this a wide berth if they are expecting witty tales of honest farm folks told in the style of Catherine Cookson. For example, the Pratt Sisters whose ludicrous antics and matching outfits took up so much of the BBC series, have little more than one page in the whole of this book! Miss Lane and her post office does not appear until the final 3rd of the compilation. There is no forbidden romance with the local Squire or any tension between him and his wife. Dawn French's larger than life Caroline gets one chapter on a page!

Instead, this is a glorious peek at the history of rural England, a wonderful read packed with information about the housing, social scene, class system, rural customs and some stories of local people. But it is not anything like the television series and those hoping it will be as accessible are in for a disappointment - in fact 2 friends who were eager to read it both gave it back after failing to get engrossed in what they hoped would be a bumper work of fiction.

Stunning !
This trilogy is just stunning. I didn't want it to end, it's one of those books you savour, and you want it to go on forever. It's one of my all time favourites. I also warmly recommend the stories of Joan Kent, she is in the same league as Flora Thompson. Her "Haywains & Cherry Ale" and "Lamplight on Cottage Loaves" are wonderful, and they relieve any Flora Thompson withdrawal symptoms once you finish 'Lark Rise to Candleford'.

A beautful book about a 'beautiful time'
Life was hard in those days but it was beautiful: well it is nice to think it was anyhow.
A lovely book that wanders reminising through the author's childhood, told with the clarity as if it had all just happened yesterday. Captivatingly written and extremely evocative.
A 'must read' book: close your eyes and dream what English rural life used to be like.
Enjoy!