Countryside contentments

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 20

Countryside contentments

Silver Ley. By Adrian Bell. Oxford, 1983. 291 pp. $9.75 (paperback). The quiet and happy story of a man who found contentment in the rural life he chose, “Silver Ley” is the second volume of an autobiographical trilogy. Set between the World Wars, against the backdrop of the great agricultural slump of the 1930 s in Britain, these memoirs are the account of a young man who rejected a life in London to learn to farm. Adrian Bell’s story provides a fascinating contrast between the optimistic resilience of youth and the econonomic hopelessness of the West Suffolk farming scene. His eye is keen, and this story of his twenties is enlivened by his observation of his country

neighbours, and a way of life around him that was to change quickly. What we get in “Silver Ley” is a writing farmer’s account of his days, both before and after his family joined him, a gruelling daily schedule set against the hopelessness of his times, the bankruptcy and collapse of farmers, together with much of the rural community. Adrian Bell hung on, feeling it a privilege to share the indigenous outlook of his rural neighbours. The accuracy and detail of his portrayal of the contemporary scene, and his rejoicing at the physical presence of the countryside around him, maintain this book’s relevance among the best twentieth-century accounts of life in rural England. — Agnes-Mary Brooke.