Diary of a Village Shopkeeper 1754-1765

by Thomas Turner

Thomas Turner (1729-93) was a key figure in the village of East Hoathly, Sussex, where he was a shopkeeper, undertaker, schoolmaster, tax-gatherer, churchwarden, overseer of the poor, and much besides. In his diary he recorded eleven colourful years of daily life in a Georgian village. Here are boisterous parties (after one of these the rector's wife helped pull Turner from his bed in the early hours and made him dance in his wife's petticoat), cricket matches, cockfighting, horse-racing, unexpected windfalls of confiscated brandy... Here too are vivid and memorable portraits of those whose lives and deaths would otherwise only be fodder for the statisticians.

Genres: History, Diary, Nonfiction

386 pages, Hardcover

First published October 24, 1985

About the author

There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads.

Thomas Turner was a shopkeeper in East Hoathly, Sussex, England who kept a diary.

Reviews

[M.G. Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never would have thought of reading such a book until my sister, who used to live in the same patch of East Sussex countryside as Thomas Turner, lent me her copy, and it has entranced me. Turner was an educated man, widely-read, and fulfilled multiple functions in his tiny 18th century village as shopkeeper, undertaker, parish official, teacher and much else. The diary breaks off when he marries his second wife – perhaps he was too busy being a good husband to keep it on – but during his first, unhappy marriage, it is a revealing, day-by-day record of his joys and woes, what they ate, how busy was the shop, how he dealt with the frequent unmarried pregnancies which could have become a charge on the village if the girl, or more often the man, could not be persuaded into marriage. And how they walked! He had a horse, mostly, but his business routinely took him on 20- or 30-mile treks to neighbouring places. The best of it, though, is that, despite working his butt off, and becoming tolerably well off, he seems to have partied endlessly, often through the night, and then he spends two days with a mighty hangover, cursing himself and vowing to reform. But he never does! It is so human and vital, I could not put it down.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took this book rather slowly, a bit each evening, because it really isn't a page-turner. But it is a most fascinating and engaging piece of work, given a (mostly) clear insight to life for a certain class and trade in the middle of the eighteenth century. There's a huge amount of repetition, as happens in life, and lots of odd and interesting things too. Political, social, economic, domestic, criminal, matrimonial - all revealed in a well-written hand. Family, neighbours, local big-wigs, ne'er-do-wells all make an appearance. Life, death (lots of that) and the bits in between come out of every page. I loved it.

[Wendy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not read this book - I read The Turner Diaries by Andrew MacDonald. It is a novel about the violent take down of the U.S. and the genocide of Blacks, Hispanics and Jews. Goodreads (and Amazon) have purged it, and only one library in Michigan has it. It is a favorite of ultra-conservative groups like QAnon and ultra-conservative people like Timothy McVeigh. Elements in the story are bomb making, communications, loyalty, clandestine organization. Hard to take seriously, but others do.

[Johanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its short (Thomas Turner is no Pepys) but interesting account of an 18th life. Much drinking and more death. Good if you want a feel for ordinary life in the period