A Child in Wartime Somerset: A Portrait in Watercolour

by SydDurston (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2011

  $3.21

  This nostalgic, humorous and richly illustrated volume celebrates the Somerset of years gone by. Syd Durston was seven when the Second World War broke out. As well as causing panic in Britain's cities, the war transformed life in the countryside in all sorts of ways. This is how one boy remembers life in rural Somerset during that time. It is an elegy to the levels and the moors, and the rich diversity of wildlife that could once be found in the fields: 'thousands of grasshoppers, large and small, hopping everywhere, butterflies of all kinds feeding on the red clovers that were now in flower; the smell of the honeysuckle and the dog roses in the hedges.' It is also a lament for the landscapes and ways of life that we have now lost. From the outbreak of war to the drama of D-Day, Syd - whose watercolour paintings, many of which illustrate this collection, aim to show the reality of farming life in the 1940s - captures a moment in history as it really was. Containing more than 150 paintings, sketches and drawings, it will delight residents and visitors alike.

• New

  Paperback
  2011

  $16.87

  This nostalgic, humorous and richly illustrated volume celebrates the Somerset of years gone by. Syd Durston was seven when the Second World War broke out. As well as causing panic in Britain's cities, the war transformed life in the countryside in all sorts of ways. This is how one boy remembers life in rural Somerset during that time. It is an elegy to the levels and the moors, and the rich diversity of wildlife that could once be found in the fields: 'thousands of grasshoppers, large and small, hopping everywhere, butterflies of all kinds feeding on the red clovers that were now in flower; the smell of the honeysuckle and the dog roses in the hedges.' It is also a lament for the landscapes and ways of life that we have now lost. From the outbreak of war to the drama of D-Day, Syd - whose watercolour paintings, many of which illustrate this collection, aim to show the reality of farming life in the 1940s - captures a moment in history as it really was. Containing more than 150 paintings, sketches and drawings, it will delight residents and visitors alike.