All Around the Year

by Michael Morpurgo

. 1979, clean copy, with dustjacket, light shelfwear, no markings

Genres: Nonfiction, Natural History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published April 26, 1979

About the author

Sir Michael Andrew Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the Second World War, then returned to London, moving later to Essex. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were invested a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to youth. In 2003, he was advanced to an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2004. He was knighted in the 2018 for his services to literature and charity. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of his books.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Farming the land to produce food is hard work, Even nowadays with all the modern technology to help them, farmers still face an uphill struggle to break even and pay the debts on the expensive kit. It wasn’t any easier in the 1970s either, as the reprint of this diary of a farming year shows.

All Around The Year is the day-by-day account of the life on Parsonage Farm and it was written by the master wordsmith, Michael Morpurgo. This farm in Devon was a mixed farm, unlike most farms these days which have tried to improve economies of scale by concentrating on one particular aspect. The work here is long and hard and relentless. Every day sees the same tasks being recorded – milking, feeding, repairs and regular expensive visits from the vet.

The various seasons see tasks like ploughing, tilling and harvesting as well as the constant animal husbandry needed. There is a routine every day, but as the seasons flow into one another, those tasks change; winter tasks ebb away to be replaced by another demanding thing. The farm’s income was a constant worry, everything cost money, and they were dependent on getting a good milk yield every day. The investment in the milking parlour had to be paid for somehow. They have income from the animals that they breed and sell on, and they are often surprised by just how much some of the beasts they sell actually make.

Yet in the record of constant toil and graft are the simple pleasures of working outside in a beautiful part of the country. Morpurgo records the first faltering steps of a calf after it has just been born, the sunshine on the face after the squall has passed through and the tired satisfaction of having completed an honest day’s work.

The weather is a constant in the entries too, even now the hints that the climate was beginning to change are there, but not as severe as we are getting these days. The right weather was needed to get things done in good time, rain on the wrong day could spoil the hay, delay seed planting affect milk yields and stop necessary repairs from happening.

I really liked this, Morpurgo’s writing is sparse and yet he manages to convey all of the detail. I felt that the diary entries have an almost metronomic effect, but he does that without romanticising just how hard it is to work there. I liked that every month began with a poem from Ted Hughes – a moment to take stock of what is likely to happen that month. I particularly liked the pictures from James Ravilious. They portray life as it was then, warts and all. I highly recommend this.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s really hard to know what exactly to rate this book. It took me about a year to read, not because I wasn’t enjoying it, but because it was slow but that was to be expected. It’s a non-fiction, diary entry book about a year on a farm. It was unlikely that it was going to be a fast-paced, thrilling read. But despite how long I took to read this I actually really quite enjoyed this. The diary entries are short and to the point and really do show all the stresses of a farm that one might not realise and also the precision needed to run the farm. I always knew farming wasn’t an easy job but it was interesting to see what EXACTLY goes into it.

[Lydia Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow-burner, as was to be expected from a series of diary entries detailing the less-than-idyllic intricacies of life on a farm throughout a full year in the agricultural calendar. Rome was not built in a day, and the same can be said for a fully-functioning farm. In order to truly understand the complex operations of farm life, one must observe the impacts of nature's ever-changing conditions on the subject throughout all seasons, and 'All Around the Year' expertly facilitates this holistic perspective. Supplemented with Hughes's vibrant figurative imagery of the pastoral, as well as James Ravilious's series of charming seasonal photographs of the farm's livestock and agrarian yield (as well as the vital, hardworking farming team sustaining it), Morpurgo's sparse, yet enlightening entries stress the precision required in the running of such a large scale operation. As someone who dreams of one day living an entirely self-sufficient life, this book made me both excited, and better equipped for, as well as cautious and increasingly informed about, a life on a farm, throughout every phase of the year. A glorious ode to the trails, tribulations, and triumphs of farming.

[Catherine Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A glorious ode to farming as it was done 50 years ago. A warts and all description that doesn’t attempt to glamourise the hard work and graft . The accompanying photographs by James Ravilious are stunning.

[Judy Thorpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tte story is an account of the farming year on Michael Morpurgo’s Devon farm. There’s so much detail of the day to day running including the children from the cites, of which 100,000 have visited.
The author’s sparse writing certainly conveys how hard farming was then. I learnt a lot.

[Ginny Burt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written diary, with monthly poems contributed by Ted Hughes and atmospheric photos provided by James Ravilious. Bit like a book of Countryfile!❤️

[Sarah Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book, very interesting and I loved the photographs too.