Chaffinch

I have a fascination with old Suffolk writers, and have just finished reading Chaffinch by H W Freeman. Written in 1941, it tells the story of an ambitious young farm worker, who manages to get his own small farm where he raises two sons and a daughter. The lead character Joss Elvin was born in 1873 and the book picks up his story from the age of 11 until he retires at 65.

His hope was that his two sons would join him on the farm, but both chose to join the army and go to France in 1915, from where they did not return. His daughter married a Norwegian farmer’s son, and when the post war depression hit, he had to borrow money to keep the farm afloat. Finally, he is forced to sell, and finds himself labouring for his childhood rival, a man who farms 600 acres.

Life today is very different from life in the first half of the last century, but the hopes, fears, tragedies and crises that beset Joss are no dissimilar from those that thwart aspiration today.