A Child in the Forest Author:Winifred Foley Born in 1914 in the mining community of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, Winifred Foley recalls - with enormous clarity and affection - her childhood of economic hardship leavened with family warmth, humour and solidarity. Now living only ten miles from the village she describes so vividly, her acute understanding of life clearly springs fro... more »m the contrasts of her environment: the disparity between the beauty of the Forest and the poverty of the village; the humanity and love of her family and the harshness of their circumstances.
The story is remarkable for its honesty, and for the author's gift of re-creating times and people long dead with an incisive precision: it also proves how extraordinarily interesting an 'ordinary' life can be.
First published in 1974, A Child in the Forest has become a classic piece of autobiography, inspiring the award-winning television play 'Abide with Me' by Julian Mitchell, taken from a chapter in the book, and a BBC documentary 'A Child in the Forest,' both shown on BBC 2 in 1976.« less
Fascinating memoir about growing up in a rural English mining town in the 1920s and 30s. I look forward to reading the other autobiographical works of this author.