The Cherry Tree

by Adrian Bell

The Cherry Tree was first published in 1932, being the final volume in Adrian Bell's classic rural trilogy. The first two volumes are Corduroy and Silver Ley. In The Cherry Tree the author describes further farming experiences, his marriage, and becoming habituated to country life. Taken together these three volumes have been described 'as the classic account of a twentieth-century Englishman's conversion to rural life'.

Genres: Memoir, Picture Books, Buddhism, History, British Literature

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1932

About the author

Adrian Bell is one of the best-known of modern writers dealing with the countryside. His books are noted for their close observations of country life.
The son of a newspaper editor, Bell was born in London and educated at Uppingham School in Rutland. At the age of 19 he ventured into the countryside in Hundon, Suffolk, to learn about agriculture, and he farmed in various locations over the next sixty years, including the rebuilding of a near-derelict 89-acre smallholding at Redisham.

Reviews

[Roya · Rating 4 out of 5]

شبِ پنجم جنگ که اینترنت رو قطع کرده بودن و از ترس و استرس موشک‌ها خوابم نمی‌برد و آرزو می‌کردم که بیشتر کنار عزیزانم زنده بمونم، همونجور توی تاریکی اتفاقی سراغ این کتاب رفتم تا بلکه کمی از این فضا و بی‌خبری دور بشم و چه انتخاب به جایی بود.
برای لحظاتی امید رو به قلبم برگردوند. برای لحظاتی تصور کردم که این وضع تموم میشه و بهارمون از راه می‌رسه و ما هم شکوفه میدیم. شاید همین فردا و شاید روز بعدش همه‌چیز برگرده سر جای خودش و ما هم برگردیم به زندگی عادی‌مون.
(راستش الان که دارم این ریویو رو توی نُت گوشیم می‌نویسم تا یادم بمونه، نمی‌دونم بیشتر از سرِ اُمیده یا استیصال. نمی‌دونم دارم التماس می‌کنم به زمین و زمان یا واقعا ته دلم روشنه. فقط می‌خوام تموم شه و اون درخت گیلاس با شکوفه‌های صورتی رو ببینم و چنین شبی رو فراموش کنم.)

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly it was a time unparalleled - even the old men admitted as much, which was an unheard of concession.

I read this book during the beautiful, unseasonably warm April of the coronavirus lockdown. The change, the uncertainty and the slow pace of life meant that I noticed everything more. I was more keenly aware of the trees, the flowers, the weather and the skies. Likewise, this book: I felt perfectly in tune with both the mood and atmosphere of it, and also aware of the parallel themes between its time and ‘my’ time. Like Adrian Bell, I had the strong sense that I was living through a time which would later be looked at as a shift in things, perhaps even a cataclysmic transition. I read with that special awareness one sometimes has that there are messages, important ones, to glean from the author’s own experience.

The Cherry Tree is the last in a trilogy that Adrian Bell wrote about his years on a West Suffolk farm in the 1920s-1930s. Bell was not from farming stock at all; indeed, he had the education and intellectual bent which meant he could operate and observe from the vantage point of both outsider and insider. It’s not clear whether he wrote these books because writing was his true calling or because he needed to supplement the paltry living he could make as a farmer. Either way, these books mix social history with memoir in a way which enriches both forms.

This book chronicles a farming year, using an ancient cherry tree (sole survivor of an old orchard) as a bellwether of the changing seasons. The cherry tree is symbolic in other ways, too, as it represents a break with the past.

It had died away - the old bluff, hospitable life of the countryside - like a summer’s day. I saw it fade, was a part of it, but from the top of my stacks as I worked, or from the window of my barn.

The author is well-aware that he and his fellow farmers are in the middle of a stream which has already changed course. Even as describes his labours, and the annual rituals of the village, he is aware that they are changing and in some cases disappearing. The book was published in 1932: the price of grains had fallen so low that arable farmers could not make any profit from them. New ‘crops’ and methods were being experimented with, but there was a great winnowing process going on, too, as some farmers could not adapt and the old ways of doing things became either unprofitable or disallowed under new government legislation. “It was indeed a time for the young and opinionated, for their elders could no longer point to the proven success of traditional procedures.”

The book is broken down into seasonal vignettes: planting the new corn, harvesting, the gypsy fayre, the village dance, the Boxing Day meet. There are encounters with various local characters, and each of them tends to illuminate some aspect of the farmer’s life. Many of the scenes have a touch of humour to them, often self-deprecating, and nearly all of them reinforce both the natural vigour and the poignant decay of the farming community.

In autumn it had been as though all the sun which the tree had drunk throughout the summer oozed back again to its leaves, making the whole tree for a while an effigy of golden light.

There are many beautiful phrases in this book: Bell has a naturalist’s eye and a poet’s ear. I collected many of my favourites in a notebook: for instance, “wet weather making the hens look sad as ruined ladies’ hats”. He describes an empty house as having windows like eyes - “echoing emptiness, (with) nothing but waiting in them”.

I think his wife ‘Nora’ (in the book, although her real name Marjorie) had poetic leanings, too. Their courtship begins when she writes a letter sharing her enjoyment in his first farming memoir Corduroy. She tells him that she enjoyed the descriptions of his simple existence toiling the earth because that life seemed “like clean linen, shining forks and spoons, the beauty of everything you use every day.”

Bell and his new wife seem companionable both in their shared sense of humour and their ability to enjoy the natural beauty around them. One of my favourite episodes in the book is when they trade their broken-down automobile for an old-fashioned pony and cart. Although they can only move slowly through the countryside, they make an enormous silver lining out of this restrained plodding. “For quiet pace is like a magnifying glass; regions one has before passed over as familiar suddenly enlarge with innumerable new details and become a feast of contemplation.”

‘A feast of contemplation’: that’s a rather good description of this book. 4.5 stars

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each one of the 3 books in this series is quite different, so if you're looking for "Corderoy" all over again, you won't find it here. I liked it, but it's more a record of changes in farming, adjusting to the markets, and to married life and the new perspective that brings. Bell writes beautifully. His descriptions of a local dance, his neighbour's favorite cow (that everyone wanted to buy, and which he hid from the bailiffs, and eventually sold to Adrian), how he was introduced to the world of bee-keeping... A lovely, quiet book.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost the same book as The Snow Country Prince but with a tree instead of a swan, and better, imo. No magical being, and more sense altogether.

[Snufkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book as a child! I even took a spare copy to my primary school :-)

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Age: 8-10 years
Media: ink and watercolor

With hope and tender care from two children and an old man, an old cherry tree blossoms for the first time after a war has ravaged the country.

Does not shield children from the realities of war, but offers hope for a better tomorrow.

[Fariba Aadelvand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story depicts the importance of nature and a special tree. It represents the continuance of life travelling through seasons.

[Buxmont Uu]

WAMWAO Session 9

[Marshalla Ramos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ikeda's use of nature to describe life changes is truly telling of the great griots. A nurturing book that will engage parent and child.

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book about nurturing hope.

[Mary Warnement · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third in Bell's lyrical description of his farming life. He sums his life; he chose "rather than serve a life-sentence to the machine of modern scuffle...since life offers no second chances...to watch--to watch long and begin to apprehend the intricate mechanisms of Nature, into which she has blown the breath of life...to observe...and resolve upon one's own true wish in life." (52)

216 "I was put in mind of great things I had once planned to do; how all my strength was to have been poured out in wrestling with angels of the difficult beauty of words, and instead, how careful I had grown in day-to-day cultivation of the earth, how content with felicity and shrunken with ambition."

101 "their souls nearsighted"
109 "owned in memory"
128 "how could that time be lost that was enjoyed"
142 "take time by the forelock" "a very bee-like wish [to] die in harness"
164 "a good cat is worth 5 pounds on a farm"
173/172 "...as usual, memory prefers to count only the / sunny hours."
190 "Death had thrust its spoke into the wheel of life, it was withdrawn and the wheel started again to revolve."
202 "At 76, he was still young to his ambition." [I know that feeling.}
248 Prefers to birdwatch rather than hunt rabbits and experience the "imprisonment of the senses."

Bell has a gift for imagery. His farm's cherry tree frames his view and his life. 255 "[the cherry tree] will be a fragrance about the cottage, putting us in mind to talk of many days. Meanwhile a successor stands in his old place in the orchard, a shivering sapling staked against the storms."

Bell's writing holds me charmed but (72) his description of the "inversion of the marriage relation," that conceding his wife's superior carving skills and allowing her to assume that task would be a detriment to their partnership, broke the spell and almost ruined the book for me. He was joking, and I could see joking that he ought to have the skill--but their agreement that he had to do it, even if badly, made me shake my head and wish to set it aside. A small thing, but small things, like toes, hold up large weights and carry us forward--or hold us back.

I am glad Slightly Foxed published the Bell's and Moore's trilogies. I hope they publish the continuing stories of some of their women authors like Bielenberg, St. Albans, and Huxley.

[Anahita Safar · Rating 4 out of 5]

امید، کلمه‌ای که این روزها خیلی بیشتر از قبل فکرم را درگیر خود کرده است. به نیکی و پستی و دروغ و راستی آن می‌اندیشم. این روزها برای کودک کزکرده‌ی گوشه‌ی قلبم کتاب‌های کودکانه می‌خوانم. از جنگ و دلاوری و حتی کژی زمانه. اگر کودکی داشتم؛ شاید این کتاب‌ را برایش زمزمه‌ می‌کردم که شکوفه‌های صورتی امید را به جان کوچکش تزریق کنم اما چه بهتر که ندارم که اگر داشتم نمی‌دانستم از چه بگویم. به سان این کتاب از شجاعت بگویم یا که بگویم فرزندم این جنگ ما نبود؟ بگویم ��اید با دلاوری پا به میدان بگذاریم یا به بانی این جنگ ناخواسته لعن و نفرین بفرستیم؟
پ.ن: در روزهای ابتدایی جنگ، دوست عزیزی به نام رویا، مطلبی در گودریدز درباره‌ی درخت گیلاس نوشتند که مرا ترغیب به خواندن این کتاب لطیف کرد، از ایشان بسیار ممنونم.

[sweet orange books · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad and difficult story about healing and moving on from the past, enlightened by the beautiful illustrations of Brian Wildsmith.

[sweet orange books · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad and difficult story about healing and moving on from the past, enlightened by the beautiful illustrations of Brian Wildsmith.

Read and reviewed: 2018-11-26

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the trilogy of farming memoirs written by Adrian Bell, this is the book I perhaps liked least. That isn't to say I didn't like the book - because I did - it just didn't seem to flow from its predecessors.

In "The Cherry Tree", Bell is once again back at Silver Ley. Due to the decline of farming and its high costs, he has cut back on farming crops and is running the farm at a kind of market garden level, growing vegetables; but still maintaining cattle and horses. During this time he also gets married, and he gives an account of how much life has changed from being a 30 year old bachelor to a married man.

I was disappointed that nothing further was mentioned about the Colvilles nor the Willingtons and Jarvis's, as in the previous two books I felt as if I knew them through the detailed descriptions the author had given them. They seem to have completely exited Bell's life at this stage. Also there is nothing more said about his own family - also a shame as they played such a large part in his last book.

I would urge anybody to read these books, they are very well written - poetical in parts - and are an effective "de-stress" read for days when one's own life is very "on the go". It's a shame these books are not more high profile, as I consider them three gems in literature.

[Books Kids Like · Rating 4 out of 5]

War has ravaged their homeland and killed their father. Taichi and his sister, Yumiko live with their mother in an abandoned farmhouse. Each day their mother walks to town where she shines shoes. The children play imaginative games outside during the long days mother is away. One day they find a tiger-striped kitten. He wanders away one day, and the children finally find him in the branches of an old cherry tree. An old man is busy wrapping straw around the trunk and branches of the tree to protect it from the coming winter. He believes that though the tree hasn't bloomed since before the war it will bloom again. This is why his patiently tends it. Taichi and Yumiko begin helping the man tend the tree. When the snows fall they climb onto its branches and brush off the snow. Much of the winter is too harsh for the children to visit the tree. When spring comes Taichi, Yumiko, and the old man peel off the straw. They are hopeful that this year the tree will blossom. One fine spring morning, while standing under the tree, they see the first blossoms burst open. Soon the old tree is covered with flowers. The tree teaches the villagers that you should never give up hope.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com

[Geoff Garnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Corduroy and Silver Lay the preceding books from this trilogy, but in The Cherry Tree the author seems to try too hard with less material. There are some beautiful passages and entertaining events, but the description of the farming year fails to capture the profound transformations of the author and his surroundings that the other two did. Maybe it is the coming of the depression, and the accompanying complaints of the farmer (and the wanton killing of wildlife) that undermine the romance. The copy from Faber and Faber was obviously scanned without proof reading, so random full stops and erroneous words littered the text. It was still well worth reading allowing contemplation of the year, the countryside of the past, and early steps to modernity, but I would find a different edition (like the Slightly Foxed edition).

[Falynn - the TyGrammarSaurus Rex · Rating 4 out of 5]

The end of Adrian Bell's trilogy about farming in East Anglia in the 1920s/30s. This final volume covers a year in the life of his farm, Silver Ley, and also his first year of marriage.

As beautifully written as it's predecessors, Mr Bell's love for his land and his lifestyle shines through his prose. A lyrical paean to a way of life now gone forever.

If this trilogy doesn't make you want to pack up, move to the country & start a small-holding, I'm afraid there is no hope for you ;p

[David Killington · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writer, and central character of this story, has aged, grown and developed from a raw youth into an experienced farmer (albeit with much yet to learn).
I find myself much invested in this character and the life he leads, to a degree where I shall sorely miss hearing of his progress, and of the lives of those in his community.
This marvellous trilogy has transported me to a time and place I am reluctant to leave.
What a wonderful writer Mr Bell was.