Written originally as a way of paying off unexpectedly high bills during his early years of farming in Norfolk – ‘There was one thing for it: to pay off the debts by writing’, he wrote in his farming classic The Story of a Norfolk Farm (1941) – these beautifully written articles by Henry Williamson, set in both Norfolk and Devon, are counterpointed and given immediacy by the inclusion of the evening’s headlines after each article, depicting the deteriorating international situation as the Second World War begins. Williamson had taken over the derelict farm in 1937, at a time when the farming industry was seriously depressed; by the time that war was declared, the farm was given an 'A' grade.
