About a Village

by McCabe, E. J.; Jones, Peter Owen

• ISBN13: 9780711232587
• ISBN10: 071123258X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-07-26
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Summary

What is it that makes the ideal English village? Firle in East Sussex is both unique and universal. First of all there is a pub and in no particular order come a school, a shop, a cricket pitch, a church, a stream, a blacksmith, allotments, flint walls, house martins. Above all, the village seems to contain that rarest of ingredients, delight.Firle sits literally at the end of the road. It is the last place you can reach by car before coming in summer to a wandering line of chalk and in winter to something a little muddier. Beyond the road are the wild landscapes of the South Downs, sleeping and keeping the bones of those who were first to arrive at the end of the last ice age. It is the connection between village, people and these hills which makes it such a special place.In a delightful photo essay, acclaimed photographer Eamonn J. McCabe captures some of what makes this English village come alive. Big open skies, small boys holding a colourful caterpillar, cabbages and tea cosies, bonfires, bikers, dogs and wellies. This is a book for all those who cherish English country life.

Author Biography

E. J. McCabe is an award winning fashion photographer working between New York and London. Over his 20 year career he has shot fashion stories for various international editions of Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire magazine. This is his first book.Peter Owen-Jones is an Anglican clergyman, author and television presenter. He is the author of several books including Around the World in 80 Faiths (BBC Books), and was the subject of the acclaimed BBC documentary How to Live a Simple Life (2009), in which he tried to live a life without money, in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi. He lives in Firle, East Sussex.

Excerpts

I must confess I have been in the pub. I was trying to canvass opinion as to why our village seems to contain that rare ingredient, which is delight. First of all it has a pub and in no particular order comes a school, a shop, a cricket pitch, a church, a stream, a bonfire society, allotments, flint walls, house martins and quite a few cats and dogs.Firle is essentially a dead end. It sits literally at the end of the road, the last place you can reach by car before the road turns in summer to a wandering line of chalk and in winter to something a little more muddy. Beyond the road are the downs, sleeping and keeping the bones of those who were first to arrive at the end of the last ice age. Wild land is a rare thing in Southern England. And yet it is the marriage between the village and these hills which is so special: neither would be the same without the other.Perhaps there is a perfect size for a village to be and maybe that size is not so big that it can be dominated by one particular interest group and not so small that it struggles to belong to itself. What I have only recently come to appreciate is the way that the village rests beneath trees. There is this wonderful graduation which blends the hills, the trees, the houses and finally us. Those of us who live here are so wonderfully small in comparison to what surrounds us.[from the foreword by Peter Owen Jones]