Facing up to Father

A recent post about Marble Hill led to a reader (RDN) commenting about the Marble Hill imprint. I bought an MH book on instinct.

My instinct defies logic. A memoir written by a first time author a decade older than me and published by a fringe publisher (his friend?) does not sound promising. But the genre is appealing; a memoir about a childhood on a farm in the Cotswolds; perhaps the heir to Lark Rise to Candleford, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man and Rathcormick by Flora Thompson, Siegfried Sassoon and Homan Potterton. They are enchanting books if you like that sort of thing – I do.

David Worlock is a worthy successor. He writes with deft assurance, revealing everything in its own good time. It is a delight. The blurb doesn’t do it justice.

“A compelling story of growing up in the Cotswolds of the 1950s and early 60s will appeal to Cotswold residents and visitors nostalgic for descriptions of a farming life long gone. It was a time when farming life was on the verge of mechanisation, a world where the horse was still very important, where the relationships of farmers and their workforce was very different, and where the class distinctions within local communities remained very rigid.” (Marble Hill Publishers)

That’s the backdrop to Worlock’s story but at centre stage is his family and his relationship with his father. In addition there are some enjoyable hunting scenes with the Beaufort, the Heythrop and the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. I hope you read it; I hope you find is as compelling as I have; I hope it brings prosperity to Marble Hill Publishers and, late in life, minor celebrity status to David Worlock.