All Among the Barley

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There were cows with slimey noses and the longest tongues that scared me when they reached around my fingers for a handful of grass. It is also an absorbing coming-of-age story in which the novel’s central protagonist is intrigued by the arrival of a visitor to the community, the spirited Constance (Connie) FitzAllen. It’s an interesting fact that to this day, everyone knows the meaning of the Holocaust but far fewer have heard of the Holodomor. There’s all that laundry every Monday, and the chickens to care for as well as all the work to help bring in the harvest.

For those of us, like myself, who have grown up in the countryside, it is not in the least bit disappointing that the hardships and drawbacks of a life lived on the land – especially in that era – be fairly portrayed and indeed, how can one truly appreciate light unless it is in the context of shades of dark? And because Edie cares little for politics or the world beyond her village, the dark underbelly of the novel is underplayed. She notices a grey sky “stitched with wavering skeins of geese”, the “green beards” of the barley that give a field “a soft nap, like dog’s fur”, the “wet-glass squeak” of hunting bats. At Hawthorn Time was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, while Rain: Four Walks in English Weather was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize.Nonetheless, I very much liked Constance FitzAllen through most of the book and admired the way that, politics aside, she developed an abiding love of her surroundings and was eager to play her part in village life, and help out with harvesting and farm work.

But at the same time one subject to uncertainty and the need to continually adapt to change – at this time, for example a farming community adapting to the decimation of a generation of male workers as well, to increased mechanisation, to changing farm tariffs, and to a changing political backdrop.In At Hawthorn Time, the threat of catastrophe stalked the pages; here the looming menace of fascism remains more theoretical than felt. A masterful evocation of the rhythms of the natural world and pastoral life, All Among the Barley is also a powerful and timely novel about influence, the lessons of history and the dangers of nostalgia. The most original of these is presented through the character Constance FitzAllen, a feisty town lady who speaks highly of the traditional values of the countryside, but appears to have an agenda of her own. She adapted well and progressed from an urban dweller who worships country living from afar, to becoming part of it. This feels like a straightforward read but the more I think about it, the cleverer it is at making literary capital out of various and sometimes contradictory relationships between present and past.

There was a hay barn where I climbed on the spikey, rectangular bales and sat on the top, looking out over the back garden and the farmhouse watching the sun go down. Set in rural East Anglia in 1933 the book invites us into the daily lives of 14 year old Edie and her family who live at and work Wych Farm. The story of the novel is one of coming-of-age in this transitional age, with side currents of misguided urban condescension, the rise of fascism, the breakdown of the international trade regime, and the slowly-effacing repression of women in social life. This is the third book I’ve read recently which explores Britain’s flirtation with Oswald Mosley’s blackshirt fascism in the 1930s – and looking at some of our current politics and politicians it’s not hard to see why this has emerged as a topic with some heat and urgency.The threads of characters woven with the social and political times and the 'what ifs' of the story line kept my interest.