To School Through the Fields

Alice Taylor recalls a childhood in rural Ireland where family is the foundation of life; where religion is a keystone; where neighbors, even eccentric ones, came through when they were needed; and children were free to roam and discover when their chores were done. Short chapters depict haymaking, the walk to and from school, Christmas, individual characters or relatives, sad events and joyous occasions. The style is simple and straightforward but evocative. Several colloquial terms had me checking the dictionary and looking for pictures online to understand a process or item that is no longer in use. This is the first of 3 books Taylor wrote about her childhood and I will be looking for the others.

2497 To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, by Alice Taylor (read 8 Mar 1993) This is an account of an Irish girl's childhood in rural Cork. It is touching and some things reminded me of my childhood on the farm, though of course there were also a lot of differences. This book is blurbed as "the biggest bestseller in Ireland's history" and I can surely see how it would deeply touch the tenderest chords of nostalgia.

3.5 This is a charming read that takes you to life in the Irish countryside of the early-mid 1900s.

This book gives you a sense of what it was like to grow up on a farm in Ireland in the first half of the 1900s.

What a delightful book this was - a wonderful portrait of Irish childhood. Her memoirs of going to school in the 40's and 50's and Irish country life.

My mothers favourite book as it reminded her of her childhood.