{"product_id":"9781854112217-the-old-and-the-young","title":"The Old and the Young","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNew editions of stories about rural women from the nineteen-forties and fifties.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnglish literature has a fine tradition of rural writing, and one of this century's greatest exponents was Margiad Evans (1909-1958). Although born in Uxbridge, she was brought up near Ross-on-Wye, and it is the south Herefordshire borderlands, its farmsteads, hamlets and towns, which are the setting for \u003ci\u003eThe Old And The Young\u003c\/i\u003e, her collection of short stories first published in 1948.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese fifteen stories are a distillation and refinement of all that is best in Evans's writing. A close observer of nature, her descriptions of trees, water, rocks, the movement of air and the interplay of light and darkness, are both exact and fluid. She was equally attendant to the subtleties of the human world. Her child's-eye narrations are remarkably empathetic, coloured and informed by memories of an idyllic year spent with her sister on her aunt's farm near the Wye. But the countryside, though treasured, is not romanticised. A rose-covered cottage could mean isolation, poverty and back-breaking physical labour, as Evans herself experienced. Her sympathies with the old, the infirm, the lonely and the careworn are a constant strand.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn many of these stories, all but one written during the Forties, the hardships of rural living are exacerbated by the war. Men are absent, families are separated, women have to shoulder added burdens. This collection is testament to the quiet heroism of the home front, to the stoic resourcefulness of those who have no cenotaph. Indeed, in war or in peace, it is Evans's ability to delineate the defining nature of small incidents, and to uncover in a precise locality moments of profound spirituality, which raise \u003ci\u003eThe Old And The Young\u003c\/i\u003e to the level of a classic. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMargiad Evans\u003c\/b\u003e (1909-1958) was born in Uxbridge, London and moved to Ross on Wye in 1920. She was the author of four novels, \u003ci\u003eCountry Dance\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Wooden Doctor\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTurf or Stone\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCreed\u003c\/i\u003e. Her short stories, a genre which includes some of her finest writing, were collected in the volume \u003ci\u003eThe Old and the Young\u003c\/i\u003e and her verse in \u003ci\u003ePoems from Obscurity\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Candle Ahead\u003c\/i\u003e. She also wrote two autobiographical works \u003ci\u003eAutobiography\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Ray of Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e in which she wrote movingly and with dignity about the onset of epilepsy and her search for God.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56451632529782,"sku":"9781854112217","price":7.13,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_28144787.jpg?v=1760463201","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781854112217-the-old-and-the-young","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}