Prejudice And Pride

by Winifred Foley

The Forest of Dean in the early 20th century is a place of great beauty, but also of great harshness and poverty. Kezzie and Tess know both aspects, particularly Kezzie whose father is arrested for sheep-stealing, her family being thrown out to face a hostile world. Tess in the meantime follows the tradition of the Forest girls and goes into service in Bristol. Kezzie is "discovered" by a theatrical impresario and goes on to become a world-famous singer; Tess meets and marries the man of her dreams raises a family and endures long years of hard work lightened by happy family life. Kezzie is successful, but love has always turned to ashes and she has no-one to love and be loved in return. Tess, despite the death of her husband, has a supportive and loving family. But all through their lives, each looks back with longing to their early friendship and the happy days as children in the Forest. It is only pride, and the prejudice of pride, that stops them from seeking one another- until the longing for their childhood home leads each to buy a house in the Forest.

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Her first book, A Child in the Forest, was published by the BBC in 1974 after it was aired as a Woman's Hour serial on the radio the previous year.

It became the first of the celebrated Forest Trilogy. Chronicling her experiences of growing up in poverty in the Forest of Dean, the story subsequently inspired a BBC Television drama Abide with Me (1977).

The book's sequel, No Pipe Dreams for Father (1977), charted her teenage years, while the concluding volume, Back to the Forest (1981), described Winifred Foley's return to the Forest of Dean with a family of her own after the Second World War.

Born in 1914 in the mining village of Brierley, near Cinderford, Winnie was the daughter of a miner who was blacklisted for being a local leader in the General Strike of 1926.

Never having enough food to eat or warm clothes to wear cemented her lifelong socialist views, as did the influence of her husband Syd. She met her him at a political meeting while she was in service in London and they married on Christmas Day 1938.

A Child in the Forest started life as a handwritten scrawl in dog-eared exercise books before finding its way to the BBC in Bristol.

Later, the book financed a pleasant cottage in Cliffords Mesne, near Newent, where painting became an interest. Finally, after her husband's death, she moved to Cheltenham, where she had gone into service as a teenager.