Hancox

by Charlotte Moore

Hancox is the Tudor hall house in rural Sussex where Charlotte Moore grew up, and where she lives today. It's been in the family since her ancestor Milicent Ludlow, young, single and an orphan, took it on in 1891 and began to enlarge the house and manage the farm. Hancox tells the story of the house and the family over the following thirty years, in the long run-up to the First World War. In one sense it's a rural idyll: the arrival of the car disturbs this peaceful agrarian world, but apart from that the rhythms of the countryside go on as they had for centuries before. But all was not quite as it seemed: Milicent made a distinguished marriage but her husband harboured a secret. Milicent herself gradually succumbed to religious fanaticism. And the death of the youngest boy at Ypres devastated the family, bringing the idyll to a painful end. Using extraordinary archive material held at Hancox today, Charlotte Moore weaves an Edwardian tale of madness and jealousy, love and loss, heroism and tragedy.

Genres: History, Biography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 24, 2010

About the author

Charlotte Moore was born in 1959. After reading English at Oxford and History of Art at Birkbeck College, she became a teacher for twelve years. She is now a full-time writer and in 2004 Viking published her acclaimed book about autism in the family, GEORGE AND SAM. For two years she wrote a highly acclaimed column called Mind the Gap in the Guardian. She lives in Sussex with her three children.

Reviews

[Lesley Lambourne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book chronicles, in considerable detail, the life of a family through several generations. Family diaries and letters are the source of an incredibly detailed and well told history that is based around the family house called Hancox.
This is a long (460 pages of small print) and, at times, complicated read. However rarely, if ever, have I been so addicted to a non-fiction book; it has travelled with me to NZ and been read on boats and planes in the last month or so.

Just one note of caution - if possible, read the physical book (published by Penguin) rather than a Kindle version. Partly because a traditional book such as this deserves to be read in the paper format and partly because you will want to refer to the family tree and maps regularly. There is also an excellent index which helps access the little bits that you had forgotten about!

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This should have been a dream book for me - old English house, social history - but it never came together for me.

[Erica Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13001419