Showing results by narrator "Vincent Brimble" in All Categories

Edward Roberson was the doctor at Ashton-under-Hill for 40 years, until his death in 1928. Revered and respected by the men on the farms, he visited his patients on horseback until the day he died. To young Fred Archer he was a mystic, a miracle man, mixing his medicines from the herbs that grew on the hill. But the villagers loved him - for all his faults, he was kindly and benevolent, never sending his bill to the poor but counting on their votes when he stood for the District Council.

Fred Archer, the master of the rural tale, has gathered together a fine collection of Worcestershire country folk. From the alluring barmaid Amy Lights – a “rural Venus” – to the Reverend Vernon, who rides a tricycle “religiously” and excels at funerals, all the characters embody earthy warmth and ruddy humour. Central to the tale is Sacco, a builder’s apprentice, who seduces the local girls and startles older folk with his much-prized motorbike. With a witty remark and a quick answer to all of life’s perplexing questions.

When Fred Archer was a boy, men’s voices were deep and mellow as they rang out following the plough, or in church on Sundays; a farmer could make a living with a herd of twenty cows; and each village had its own blacksmith and wheelwright. The Cuckoo Pen recreates those days of the 1920s and ‘30s when life was so different from today. Here was a time when workers enjoyed a mutual rapport, their long days of hard work punctuated only by the turning rhythm of the seasons and the pleasure of a chat.