Devon Venture - A book that shaped me

I often like to indulge in a certain amount of escapism during my waking hours. It might be just going off into a daydream, playing some of my favourite Beatles or sixties music, or just getting outside and rummaging about on my Smallest Smallholding, doing nothing in particular. But one of my favourite things to do is lose myself in a Really Good Book.

I love reading new books, and the discovery that you’re really enjoying a new, fresh story and feel obliged to plough on through the next chapter, despite the fact that it’s almost midnight and you have to be up in six and a half hours. But there are also books that I love to revisit every now and then too.

Those of you that frequent this blog might have picked up on the fact that I’m completely nutty about the Harry Potter series. I mean, I seriously, seriously love those books. In a way, they changed my life a bit.

But there’s also another book that I love to re-read that I also think changed my life. I would probably go so far as to say that it was potentially what planted the idea of having a smallholding in my head from an early age. The book is called Devon Venture, written by Catherine Bell for ‘The Boys’ and Girls’ Library’ for Collins Seagull.

I first read this book when I was about 8 or 9 years old. It had belonged to my Mum - the first edition having been printed in 1965. The cover is colourful, showing the two protagonists Carole and Jan (very sixties) holding a calf, against a backdrop of rolling Devon countryside, chickens, their small stone cottage, and their landlord Mr Summers on his tractor (with pipe in mouth and flatcap).

What I love about this book is that it encompasses a few elements - even for a child’s book, it doesn’t shy away from things like the devastation that a flood can cause to wildlife.  It addresses social issues such as children living in poverty. Surprisingly, for a sixties book, when fur was still very much acceptable in the mainstream, the author seemed to be either ahead of her time, or in tune with the non-industrial farming methods plaguing the nation at that time,

“Who lived here last?” inquired Carole. “One of your farm-workers?”

“No,” said Mr. Summers. “No, I let it out to a couple who thought they could make a fortune out of breeding chinchillas, for the fur market. But it didn’t come off. I think they got some disease among their stock, and thy left and went back to London. I wasn’t sorry to see them go. They weren’t country people, and the woman was always coming borrowing this and that from my wife. Anyway, I hate the idea of breeding animals just to kill them for their pelts. I dare say you think it’s odd to hear a farmer talk like that?”

“I don’t,” said Carole thoughtfully. “I quite agree with you. I know farmers breed animals to be killed, but unless you believe it’s wrong to eat meat, it is necessary. Fur coats aren’t necessary. The nylon ones are just as good.”

“I get awfully muddled about the whole thing,” confessed Jan. “I hate the thought of the animals being killed, especially calves and lambs, but after all if people didn’t eat meat the animals wouldn’t be bred at all, and they do enjoy their short lives, at least the ones who are well-treated do. I just don’t know what to think.”

“I see nothing wrong in killing animals for food provided they lead happy lives and are give a quick, merciful death,” said Mr. Summers. “Where the whole thing falls down is when thoughtless or cruel people deny them these things. Conditions in some of the markets are still very bad, thought better than they were when I was a lad. Well, well, this is a sad subject! How did we get onto it?”

“It’s something one has got to think about if one wants to farm,” said Jan soberly.

“I can see you’ve got a conscience,” he said. “And none the worse for that. We can’t change the world, my girl, but we can do our very best in our own small corner of it, and if everyone did that it would add up, you know…”

I think you can see why this book had a major effect on me, and why, in a way, it shaped my ideas, dreams and ideals. OK, so it’s a child’s book, but in adulthood I still find that it gets me dreaming and thinking. The part were Jan and Carole move into their rented cottage ‘Badgers’, and resurrect the veg plots, do up the cottage, start bringing in the chickens…I see reflections in what I’ve done.

The excitement of moving away from their secretarial jobs and running their own smallholding, as two independent young women, I guess also fires me up. In some ways, I think it was quite a ‘feminist’ book too, showing two strong, young, independent girls making it in a predominantly male business. Thinking about it, the book was printed in 1965, when Britain was right on the cusp of the second wave of feminism (the first, I think, having been the suffragette movement - correct me if I’m wrong).

It’s definitey a book I’ll keep re-reading, and will make sure my children read too. And if you’re not adverse to a hint of jolly-wizard!-ever-so-slightly-famous-five-esque dialogue, and don’t mind reading children’s books, I think you’ll enjoy this book. So this is my recommendation to you.

How about others? What books changed your life, shaped or inspired you?