Farmers' Glory

Farmer’s Glory by A. G. Street
Decorations by Gwendolen Raverat
First published in 1932 by Faber & Faber, it was a bestseller throughout the thirties and forties.
A new edition published by Little Toller Books in 2017

Born in Wiltshire, A. G. Street grew up in an ancient, cultivated landscape with people whose lives were shaped by seasonal rhythms and defined by traditions of husbandry that were many centuries old. In 1911, after a falling out with his father on the family farm, he struck out alone for Western Manitoba in Canada. Here, he experienced a new kind of farming where economies of scale left no room for sentiment about replacing people with machines and using pesticides to grow crops more intensively.

When A. G. Street returned home to continue farming in Wiltshire, he grappled with what he had witnessed in North America, and formed what could, in hindsight, be described as a radical nostalgia for the old agrarian ways.

Farmer’s Glory is a warm, humorous and frank account of farming on both sides of the Atlantic. Written in unpretentious prose, the book details the joys and hardships of an agricultural life undergoing significant change at the beginning of the twentieth century. Includes includes the original wood engravings by the author’s friend, Gwen Raverat.

Available through this website