‘Lark Rise’ is Flora Thompson’s personal account of growing up in a small rural community in Oxfordshire in the late Victorian period.

Flora is ‘Laura’ in the retelling and with a keen eye for observing nature and beauty, Flora Thompson renders an exacting yet not too sentimental picture of what life was like for the rural poor. Struggling to make ends meet, yet happy in enjoying the simple pleasures of life, ‘Lark Rise’ is an intimate and detailed social history of life in those times.

The exact time of the retelling is the 1880’s and most of the stories are related to that particular decade, coinciding with the first formative years of Laura and her younger brother Edmund’s life. Seen through child Laura’s keen lense, yet told with adult sensibilities ‘Lark Rise’ paints an astonishing plethora of pictures of village life, bridging the gap from childbirth to death, inclusive of high days and holidays, religion, schooling, social life, care of the elderly and so much more. There are even descriptions of the lavish care of the family pig – an exceedingly important figure in village life.

Historically, one of the most important aspects of this story is the fact that the story is told during a time which was going through immense change in the shape of industrial and technological development. This would not only affect the methods of farming but have a great impact on food production, favouring shop bought over home made and home grown. Railways had shrunk the size of the country. People from places a mere 5 miles away were no longer thought of as ‘furriners’. Despite the developments, there is almost a feeling of sadness as the storyteller closes the curtain on an era long gone and not to be recovered.

Two chapters of the book are dedicated to describing songs sung by the village folk and games favoured by their children. ‘Country Playtime’ describes time honoured games like ‘Oranges and Lemons’, ‘London Bridge’, ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush’ and also lesser known ones that adopted a fair share of storytelling and role playing like ‘Here Come Three Tinkers’. There were supposedly so many known games and rhymes to be played, all passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, that children could play for hours on end without fear of repetition.

As a bibliophile the fact that Laura takes so much pleasure from reading is very enjoyable. I took careful note of some of the books that graced Laura’s bookshelves. Apart from her Mother’s Bible and Pilgrim’s Progress they included Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Gulliver’s Travels, The Daisy Chain and Mrs Molesworth’s Cuckoo Clock and Carrots.

One of my favourite chapters was the one dedicated to May Day celebrations. Since I read this chapter at the beginning of May, the reading felt very seasonal and greatly added to my enjoyment. The chapter started out with the statement that the celebrations surrounding May Day were the most cherished by the village children. Curious to learn why May Day celebrations superseded Christmas in enjoyment, I read on … What followed was a description of a most beautiful and flower filled day of merriment, where a large May garland of flowers, prepared mostly by the children and encrusted with gathered violets, cowslips, wallflowers, oxlips, sweetbriar and more, was carried ceremoniously accompanied by a flower bedecked May Queen, replete with a regal daisy crown. The procession along with a whole bevy of beribboned and pinafored girls in light coloured frocks and boys in bright ribbons and sashes would travel from the Rectory, to the Squire’s house, and thereon to the farmhouses and cottages dotted across the local parish. There would be May songs rejoicing in the beauty of Spring and the tinkling of coins in the money box at the end of each recital was customary.

Another major celebration surrounded Harvest Time. After the last sheaf of corn was collected, the farm workers would be invited to a glorious harvest home dinner at the farmer’s house. Hams were boiled, plum puddings stacked, eighteen gallon casks were tapped, and plum loaves baked in a truly Dickensian feast. In retrospect, it seems fitting that the most celebrated festivals for Lark Rise villagers, were those related to that of the land and its bounty.

Of course I am just skimming the surface in this review. Flora Thompson’s ‘Lark Rise’ is wonderfully descriptive and one might say, illuminating. A carefully scripted paragraph inserted here and there amidst the pages can astonish the reader with nature descriptions of searing beauty.

“Against the billowing gold of the fields the hedges stood dark, solid and dew-sleeked; dewdrops beaded the gossamer webs, and the children’s feet left long, dark trails on the dewy turf. There were night scents of wheat-straw and flowers and moist earth on the air and the sky fleeced with pink clouds.”

If you have wondered what it must have been like to live a few centuries ago, then this is a good book to pick up. It is a beautiful place to be transported to and though the last page of the book brought tears to my eyes, I will leave it to you, to find out why.

I received a review copy of ‘Lark Rise’ by Flora Thompson from Slightly Foxed but all opinions are my own.