Once more, Archer integrates his knowledge of farming with the story of his own life. Characters such as Fred Chandler, the cowman who loved his cows as David loved Jonathan, are found amongst the descriptions of a society that survived the Great Depression on 30s a week. Here we find men, back from the trenches, toiling the sodden fields in puttees and army coats, here are their wives and girlfriends doing piece-work, here is the workhouse, the school, the church, here are the year-long farming tasks of Bredon Hill. Here is the ordinary rural life as only Fred Archer can paint it.
