Back to the forest

Forest Trilogy #3

by Winifred Foley

Genres: Nonfiction

206 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

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.

Reviews

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this sequel more than A Child in the Forest. Here Winifred moves from London back to the Forest with her family. More humor in the writing style - not laugh at loud, but dry. As well as some sad moments.

I believe that there is an intervening book that I need to track down now...

[Karlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this as a resident of the Dean myself and expecting to read of the Dean’s answer to Laurie Lee, also from Gloucestershire.

But I found it dull, overly domesticated. I wanted to like it more than I did and whilst I got to the end and found Winnie likeable and lovely with a shared political and religious outlook (of no faith), the tale of life in the Forest was just too, well, eventless.

Touching in moments and readable it just lacks interest.

[Jo Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A continuation of the child in the forest.

[Zeta T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must find this again...

[Catherine Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second memoir written by Winifred Foley and it describes the family move from London back to the country. The poverty is grinding, the work physically demanding but the family survive. It is an important addition to post war social history.