Fenland Chronicle

by Sybil Marshall

In this text, Sybil Marshall collects together her parent's remembrances of their childhoods, marriage, family life and work in this traditional corner of England and draws them into a potrait of time gone by.

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 1980

About the author

Born Sybil Mary Edwards, she was educated at Ramsey Heights Elementary School, 1919-1923, Ramsey Grammar School
1924-1932, Exhall Grange Emergency Training College, Coventry, 1948-1949 and New Hall, University of Cambridge, 1960-1962. At Cambridge she gained English Hons. Class 2:1 (Tripos completed in 2 years).

She became a teacher and lecturer in primary education and wrote a variety of books on education as well as a collection of fiction and memoirs.

Reviews

[Sarah Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was lent to me by a fenland farmer whose cousin wrote this book. I really enjoyed it. An enjoyable insight in to Victorian fenland life, all but forgotten. It reminded me somewhat of Laurie Lee’s cider with Rosie, and Flora Thompson’s Larkrise to Candleford. I dare say if you enjoyed those you would enjoy this. It also allowed me to see the Cambridgeshire fens with fresh eyes, noticing new things and appreciating the quirky landscape a little bit more. A word of warning though, as it is written in the fenland vernacular I found it quite tough going and took me a little while to get in to it, but it was worth persevering.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anyone but my father wishes to rant about this book until the end of time please enthuse me. Nothing but this, in the spiritual or very literal geographical-by-coordinates sense, has a book felt like home. There I am thinking I know your kids-kids-kids and the very tree you hung a cat from, or the dykeside where a kid drowned now where my brother fishes on. Books like this express a history that no Cambridge manuscript or google search ever will. To all I’ve come across that refuse to believe how remote and otherwordly the fens are, here is my evidence. Dramatic much?. I’m not sorry.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fenland Chronicle is composed of two memoirs of the author's parents, taken from their memories in the late Victorian and Edwardian era's. The Fens are a low, marshy area in England. Sybil Marshall's father, Will En' (Edwards)/Bill 'Arry, reminisces about his schooling, upbringing, and working life. There are some very funny stories he relates including about a willful donkey, two stubborn old men, and a mischievous brother-in-law. The reminiscences are also sad as he relates stories of poverty, hard work and tragedy. See more: https://readableword.wordpress.com/20...