By-Road by Adrian Bell

Bodley Head 1943. This Edition. 270 pages. No dust jacket. Green cloth with gilt lettering.

One of my favourite Adrian Bell books. This one is about a new type of farmer who comes to the village with plans to run a fruit farm. He brings with him new ways, tractors rather than plough horses, vans and mass production. As with many Bell books it charts the onward march of the new ways & the decline of the old familiar ways. Before the farmer came the By-road was a quiet sleepy lane that led nowhere in particular, after his arrival it becomes a hive of activity, new houses are built and a way of life is changed forever. There is a delightful description of a now declining hamlet, which falls into disrepair as the older generation die and the younger want something more exciting and easier. Bells books are a wonderful reminder that the world is an ever changing, ever shifing thing and we probably all now mourn for the passing of things which to him were new and strange. although I think this book stands quite well on it's own, reading Bells books in order would give you more info on who some of the characters are who are mentioned in this book such as Mr Colville.