Bertie, May and Mrs Fish: Country Memories of Wartime

Don't be put off, as I was, by the slightly fey title. This is a charming autobiography of the childhood years of Xandra Bingley. She was privileged by birth, certainly, but it didn't prevent her early childhood, during the war, from being tough. Her mother, though scarcely raised to such a life, gave herself up to running a large farm since her husband was away at the war. She milked, cared for animals, from cattle to her always beloved horses, did all the practical jobs of which there's never any shortage on a farm, and managed the landgirls and the accounts. Xandra, a fairly isolated child, was simply expected to muck in, and muck in she did.

Her father appears part way through the book as a jovial and somewhat eccentric product of show more his rather blinkered upbringing. It's fair to say he'd never have voted a Labour government in.

Xandra Bingley's observations, her feeling for people and places and animals and acute memory of telling moments make this a delightful and interesting memoir. show less

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