2005-08-21 Heart-warming autobiography

This is one for the cosy English cottage fireside, and you can almost smell the rural atmosphere and embers that pervade these modest reflections on clearly a life of balanced toil and merriment. It leaves you feeling that it's ok to fail so long as you try, and to keep reaching for what you might be good at.

The honest author of many children's books describes his life as a farm hand, war veteran, failed farmer (through chaotic mismanagement and too bigger love of animals!), a brief factory worker, before being trained as a primary teacher and finally successful childrens' writer. Not to mention father and grandfather. It's vintage stuff, very good, old-fashioned England, but as it's by a man used to writing for kids, it never gets overly dull or self-indulgent, and can be enjoyed by young and old. Also, many humourous accounts of animal characters keep the pace going. It's such a well-rounded life, you wonder what has happened to us in these modern times, divorced from country living. It's interesting to note that when the family suffers some hardships his friends come to the rescue, making this even more a tale about family values. A bit more detail in some places would have helped, as you sense that the author's wry hints at his readers occasionally have to fill in too large a gap.

The drawings are equally cosy, but there might have been more of them to make this an even greater celebration of old farming life and to support perhaps more of the stories and poems by the author. More references and extracts from some of his stories could have been interesting too, perhaps to remind us of his talent for 'anthropomorphism'.

A real, honest read, recalling a bit of James Herriot, leaving you with a warm glow.