Today my day has been remarkable only in as much as it has been terminally boring. I have travelled a round trip of 600 miles to go to a meeting and that meant a very early start, two plane journeys and a lot of waiting around.
While pondering about what to write about today, I decided that there was nothing wrong in retracing my steps and covering the story I was going to tell yesterday then got distracted from because of the death of Caron Keating. Who, by the way, seems even more remarkable to me now because while I have been waiting for planes, taxis and meetings, I’ve had time to read her obituaries and see just how terrible her struggle was.
So, this photo is Rosie. I’ve tried to compose an image that is broadly similar to the cover of a book I was bought for Christmas by my parents. The reason for this is that my parents saw the cover of the book, saw Rosie looking out at them with a perky little red bow tie on and were attracted to read the sleeve notes. They decided from the sleeve notes that I would like the book and so bought it for me for Christmas.
It was published by a small publisher in Cumbria and is basically a monthly magazine column by a woman called Jackie Moffat that has been compiled into a book and published. The subject matter is the true story of a woman and her husband who opted out of the London lifestyle for a small farm in Cumbria, it’s called ‘Funny Farm’. Jackie Moffat’s husband had been raised in Cumbria and she was a Londoner through and through. I found out later that only 6,000 copies of the book had been published and they’d only been sold locally so the fact that my parents saw it and thought of me was an amazing quirk of fate.
I have to confess to being a bit cynical when I read the sleeve notes myself because I’ve read many ‘country idyll’ books (Under a Tuscan Sun, A Year In Provence, Urban Dreams, Rural Reality etc etc) and I couldn’t see how this book would be anything more than those were. I eventually decided to read it when I was ill earlier this year and couldn’t concentrate on much so something that was written in very short chapters was just the ticket.
Well, I was more than pleasantly surprised. The book is wonderful. It is absolutely side-splittingly funny. I loved the anecdotes about the animals, the neighbours, the ‘friends’ who come to stay, the dry stone walls, the machinery, everything really……..until a couple of chapters before the end when it gets very serious indeed. It covers the foot and mouth epidemic from the point of view of a farmer. I cried buckets. I cried more buckets when she described the terrible loneliness of empty fields and no animal sounds. I cried more buckets when she described in such a factual way how she had her flock of rare breed sheep destroyed in the hope that it would stop the spread of the disease. I cried more buckets when her pet goat also fell victim to the epidemic. John, I think you would love this book.
While I was still ill, I happened to spot a way of communicating with the woman into whose life I felt I had seen such a wonderful glimpse. I pondered on it for a few days because I was a bit concerned that she might find contact from people like me unwelcome but eventually decided to go ahead and write to her. I agonised for ages about what to say that would make her realise how much enjoyment I’d got from her book but that wouldn’t make her think I might be a stalker!!!
Imagine my delight when she replied to me. Not only was she pleased and flattered I’d loved the book so much but she was really friendly and even sent me some more chapters that had been published in the magazine but were from the period after the book had been published. I can’t tell you how wonderful that was. It made the experience of reading the book even more real.
Anyway, the book has been taken up by a ‘proper’ publisher, rather than just a small local company and the book came out earlier this month across the UK. In fact, the reason why this story was going to be told yesterday was because I heard her on the radio yesterday morning. She sounded very different from what I’d imagined but she also made me even more convinced that she possesses a unique courage and determination because she recounted the reason for her move (which wasn’t in the book). Her husband broke his back in a riding accident and so they decided that this was the time to make a big life change. His incapacity meant he went to agricultural college while she grafted on the farm. He was the brains and she was the brawn as she put it. How brave is that? I think I would have been too terrified to contemplate such a thing…..you already know how much of a coward I am about these things.
Anyway, Jackie Moffat’s Funny Farm is a very good read…..and she’s a lovely lady too. Her little dog Tess is so like our Rosie it's not true.