In the Village

by Anthony Bailey

Collectible softcover

Genres: Travel

225 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1971

About the author

Anthony Bailey (born 1933) was a British non-fiction writer, and art historian.

He was evacuated to Dayton, Ohio, in 1940 during World War II. For many years he was a writer for the New Yorker magazine.

He died of corona virus in Colchester, Essex, which he contracted whilst in hospital for hip surgery after a fall at his home.

He lived in Mersea Island, near Colchester, Essex, with his wife Margot. They have four daughters: Liz, Annie, Katie and Rachel.

His obituary in the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/bo...

Reviews

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming book about the town I live in, well, outside of. However, he wrote this in the 70's and the transition is almost unrecognizable on many levels. All the businesses of a small functioning town are pretty much gone and although the architecture remains stable, (no condos although many of the nonhistoric homes have been remodeled, and fences are up now everywhere so you can't walk the few blocks from one end of the peninsula to the other) much of it now is a tourist area for summer people instead of the mauufacturing, (granite, Huntingon Pottery, machinery, the velvet mill, and major fishing port. The mills and the school has now have been repurposed into shops and condos.The last Connecticut fishing fleet is still here and a lasting ethnic marker is the yearly Blessing of the Fleet hosted by the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society, who aslo offer a few ongoing public events, but there are no services or trades like a grocery, drug, department or book store, although there is still a newspaper and a liquor store. And chi-chi shops with tasteful high end items. I don't live in the town so I can't speak for the social web of interaction, or the contrast between the monied elite, summer people or the working class or how many Porgtuguese families still live in town, yet structurally it is still charming and historically preserved. However, it may be that the independently functioning village and village mentality Bailey describes still exists, but I think his world has disappeared.