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Product Description
A classic picture of the rural past in a remote Suffolk village, revealed in the conversations of old people who recall harvest customs, home crafts, poetic usages in dialect, old farm tools, smugglers' tales, and rural customs and beliefs going back to the time of Chaucer.
About the Author
Born in the mining town of Abercynon, South Wales, George Ewart Evans (1909-88) was a pioneering oral historian. In 1948 he settled with his family in Blaxhall, Suffolk, and through conversing with his neighbours he developed an interest in their dialect and the aspects of rural life which they described. Many were agricultural labourers, born before the turn of the century, who had worked on farms before the arrival of mechanisation. With the assistance of a tape recorder he collected oral evidence of the dialect, rural customs, traditions and folklore throughout East Anglia, and this work, reinforced by documental research, provided the background for his renowned East Anglian books.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent oral history,
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This review is from: Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay (Paperback)
I think it probably helps that I grew up in the same region as the subjects of this book, but I believe it has a general appeal. Like all oral historians, Evans seeks to learn what the reality of life was like 60-70 (or more) years ago by speaking to the old people about their memories. The coastal areas of Suffolk are geographically fairly remote, and more to the point have always been off the beaten track. Consequently, the lifestyle and conditions at the time the book was written probably reflected what life was like elsewhere in the country a good while earlier. A highly recommended book.
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sublime visit to a Vanished World,
By
This review is from: Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay (Hardcover)
For anyone who likes oral history and the English countryside, this new edition of ASK THE FELLOWS WHO CUT THE HAY is one of those very rare things: it is just about as perfect as it's possible for a book to be.
From the blurb inside the jacket: 'This classic work remains vigorous and true, an illuminating and unvarnished portrait of village life with all its harsh poverty and struggle as well as its rich knowledge and culture. As the Times Educational Supplement wrote, George Ewart Evans "gives the wholeness of the old life and the passionate pursuit of perfection that could make a craft like drawing a a straight furrow into something near an art".' Originally published in 1956, ASK THE FELLOWS WHO CUT THE HAY is a beautifully-crafted ramble through a vanished age: blacksmiths, dairymaids, waggoners, pig-keepers and shepherds dwell side-by-side with candlemakers, ploughmen, bellringers, the parson and the squire, and the whole account centres on the life and memories of a small Suffolk village in the century prior to the Second World War. The traditions, superstitions, games and pastimes of the villagers are set against a backdrop of unending hard labour through the shifting seasons down the centuries. The unsentimental writing is masterful, eminently readable, and now it is a joy to see this book issued in an edition that celebrates the hundredth anniversary of the author's birth. This is not nostalgia - this is social history at its best: from the mouths of those who lived it. All human life is here, and here is something for everyone. The icing on the cake is the fact that the publishers (Full Circle Editions - a small press with enormous integrity) have commissioned the author's son-in-law David Gentleman to provide a wealth of watercolour illustrations to complement the text. These are nothing less than exquisite. Gentleman, at the age of 80, needs little or no introduction: his books on London and Britain are justly famous, and anyone familiar with Charing Cross Underground Station will know his lovely murals of mediaeval builders at work; his covers for the New Penguin Shakespeare in the 1970s breathed an inspiring life and vigour into the plays that was often sadly lacking in the classroom - and more recently his anti-Blair and anti-Iraq war posters hit home powerfully in their blood-spattered economy of style. David Gentleman is an institution to be proud of, and Full Circle Editions can be very proud of his contributions to his father-in-law's classic. This publication, so reasonable in price, is a joy from beginning to end. Snap it up while it's still around.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The real country life,
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This review is from: Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay (Paperback)
This book is a collection of the memories of real people who worked as haymakers or shepherds before the days of agricultural mechanisation. They're not romantic about it but they don't complain either. They just tell it the way it was. A unique insight into a former way of life.
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