- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Amberley Publishing (29 May 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1848680953
- ISBN-13: 978-1848680951
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.4 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 880,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
No review can better describe this book than that of George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and Nineteen-Eighty-Four. Orwell wrote the following in his diary, November, 1944: Everyone has a list of books which he is 'always meaning to read', and now and again one gets round to reading one of them. One that I recently crossed off my list was George Bourne's Memoirs of a Surrey Labourer...It is a true story, Bettesworth, the man it is about, was not quite an ordinary labourer. He had been a farm worker, but had become a jobbing gardener, and his relation with George Bourne was that of servant and master. Nevertheless there is some remarkable detail in it, and it gives a true picture of the cruel, sordid end with which a lifetime of heavy work on the land is often rewarded. The book was written more than thirty years ago, but things have not changed fundamentally. Immediately before the war, in my own village in Hertfordshire, two old men were ending their days in much the same bare misery as George Bourne describes.
About the Author
George Sturt (1863-1927), who also wrote under the pseudonym George Bourne, was an English writer on rural crafts and affairs. He was born and grew up in Farnham, Surrey.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a diary or journal written by George Sturt (Pseudonym George Bourne) recording his observations of the final years of Fred Bettesworth, the 'Surrey Labourer' of the title, who worked for Sturt as a gardener at the turn of the nineteenth century. It is a quiet, understated record of fragments of conversation between the two men and the thoughts and observations of the writer. It gives the reader a unique and gentle insight into two lives from an earlier age. It is a book that will appeal to the contemplative reader who has a love of the old country people and their way of life, their hardships and their humour. There is little excitement, but plenty about the little dramas of life and I was left feeling as though I had stood beside them and watched them and listened to their conversations. It was all so real to me that I felt almost as if they had been brought back to life again in the twenty first century. I found the book to be an affectionate and very moving portrayal of Fred Bettesworth and the writing is of the very highest quality.
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