Warne’s Book of the Farm .............. one I wish I had been given

Now I am a great fan of children’s books especially the ones that were produced when I was growing up.

Most of them were beautifully produced with a real care to detail and quality and of course with the passage of half a century and more are history books in their own right.

It starts with the images which recreate a lost world which may reflect the prevailing ideology, class outlooks and social prejudices, and goes on to the text which is equally likely to be shot through with a set of assumptions so different from ours.

All of which is why I like Warne’s Book of the Farm.

It starts with the Farmers Task telling the young reader that “the farmer is the most important man in the world.  

He always has been and always will be.  

His work is to produce food for us to eat, and wool and leather for us to wear; and food and clothes are two things everybody wants and without which we cannot live.”

Now that I think has a lot of truth in it.

And that is then followed up the wonderful period pictures.

It belongs to Ann Love who was given it by her grandfather.




Pictures; from Warne’s Book of the Farm, 1949, from the collection of Ann Love