WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANEDuring the Second World War, John Stewart Collis volunteered to leave his comfortable life as an academic to work on the land for the war effort. His account of this time perfectly captures the soft-handed, city-dweller’s naivety and wonder both at the workings of nature and the toughness of life on a farm. It’s set in the south of England and comprises exquisitely written sections on whatever happens to take Collis’s fancy and inspire his thoughtful curiosity, ranging from humorous sketches of the characters he works alongside; mini-essays such as ‘Contemplation upon Ants’, The Mystery of Clouds’, ‘Colloquy on the Rick’, ‘Meditation while Singling Mangolds’, ‘The Garden of Eden’; and celebrations of the earthworm, pea and potato. His mind ranges far and wide through literature science and philosophy as well as amazing descriptive writing, which makes for a book that is as uncategorisable as it is enchanting.
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About the Author
John Stewart Collis was born in 1900. His father was a Dublin solicitor and Collis was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1925 he published a biography of George Bernard Shaw and he later went on to write other biographical works and also became a pioneer of the ecological movement in Britain. During the Second World War his wife and daughters were evacuated to the United States and he worked for the Land Army as an agricultural labourer - accompanied by his beloved dog, Bindo. His memoirs and meditations on rural life, While Following the Plough (1946) and Down to Earth (1947) were first published together as The Worm Forgives the Plough in 1973, which has become a classic of nature writing.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A unique treasure,
By Lost John (Devon, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Worm Forgives the Plough (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)
This book consists of two sections narrating John Stewart Collis' Second World War-time experience working on farms in the English counties of Sussex and Dorset (published together in 1946 as While Following the Plough), a further section of rather more philosophical reflection on that experience, and a final section - both narrative and philosophical - on working for a year as a forester, also during WW2 and in Dorset. The latter two sections were first published in 1947 as Down to Earth.When Collis opted for a wartime posting in the Land Army, he was 40 years old, had a wife and children (evacuated to the United States) and was already established as an author. He had no previous experience of farm work. Remarkable as it may seem, he appears to have settled-in tolerably well with the work of an agricultural laborer, with the horses, farm machinery, fellow workers and employing farmers, and most definitely to have enjoyed his exposure to nature, the seasons and the weather. When, later in the war, he turned to forestry, that for him was even better. There were of course moments of crisis when his lack of skill with horses and equipment had unhappy consequences, plus occasional tension with fellow workers, but for one determinedly jumping into the deep end he seems to have enjoyed a relatively pain-free experience, helped no doubt by being reasonably adept, a fast learner, and of equable character. As readers, we discover much about farming at that time; a time made particularly interesting not only by the war-time aspect but by it being in any case the cusp of change from the old horse-powered, labor intensive ways to tractors, combine harvesters and unprecedented advance in agricultural productivity. We join in the adventure of the townsman going to live and work in the countryside, and learn with him of a huge range of natural phenomena, from the carbon cycle to the importance to the landscape of earthworms, to the cropping sequences of fruit crops and cereals; and the finer points of building and unbuilding hay and corn ricks, setting up a field for plowing and the various cash products of an ash forest. And much more besides. Introducing The Worm Forgives the Plough as a combined volume in 1973, Collis noted the disappearance of corn and hay ricks and suggested that his book was about the last of its kind that could be written in England. Not defining 'its kind' as strictly as Collis, we may hope that the venerable line of writing about farming and the countryside to which he contributed may yet be continued. But nothing could detract from this account of agricultural life and work at a momentous time. Without question, it is a unique treasure.
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