The Shadows of WarA.R. Brown

Home The Farm

Door No. 3

The Farm

Harvest and hearth, frost and ploughing, and a war that arrives by wireless and by post.

The farm lies near Hurst Green, in the High Weald of East Sussex: small fields, thick hedges, and clay that clings to boots and cartwheels and holds the water all winter.

It runs on the same rhythm it has always run on. The cows are milked twice a day and do not know there is a war. There is hay to make, corn to cut and stook, ground to plough before the frost. George, her father’s loyal farmhand, knows every gate and every ditch. Agnes keeps the house. Tommy works where he is sent. Scout, the dog, supervises all of them.

Lily Harper had other plans. She wanted to be an artist. Then, at twenty-two, alone after a sudden tragedy, she must shoulder the running of her family’s struggling farm, and the men who once worked for her father doubt she can lead them.

The war does not arrive all at once. It comes in a broadcast on a Sunday morning, in the young men marching away, in ration books and ploughing orders from the War Ag, in the blackout over every window. As rationing bites, the farm becomes a lifeline for the whole village, and Lily works until her hands are raw to win their respect.

Below, the farm’s first years at war, season by season, from the chapters of the book.

1938Autumn
A young woman with auburn curls sits on a grassy bank above a little waterfall, drawing in a sketchbook, with wild flowers around her and the fields rolling away beyond.
The Lie of the LandCaption to confirmFriday, 16 September 1938
1939Summer
A young woman in a blue pinafore holds a sheaf of corn against her shoulder and looks away across the fields at sunset, a farmhouse among the trees behind her.
The Weight of ResponsibilityCaption to confirmAugust 1939
Harvest in a sunny field: a young woman stands on a loaded cart drawn by a shire horse while a farmhand pitches sheaves up to her, and an older man watches from the gate beside his bicycle.
Rumours of WarCaption to confirmAugust 1939
1939Autumn
In a low-beamed cottage kitchen, an older woman in an apron, a man in work clothes and a young woman in a pinafore stand close together and look down in worried silence. A wireless set stands on the dresser beside a loaf of bread.
A Sunday Like No OtherCaption to confirmSunday, 3 September 1939
In a barn striped with low sunlight, a young woman in dungarees holds a heavy horse by its halter while a farmhand in rolled sleeves stands beside her.
The Storm Before the CalmCaption to confirmSeptember 1939
In black and white, a young woman in work clothes stands with one hand on a horse's bridle in a barn lit by shafts of light from the slatted wall.
The First FarewellCaption to confirmOctober 1939
1940Summer
An old Fordson tractor stands in the gloom of a timber barn. Light from the open door falls across straw, sacks, boots and tools on the bench.
Only LentCaption to confirmJuly 1940
1940Autumn
Seen from behind in a dim barn, a young woman with her hair tied back in a scarf rests her hands on a horse's bridle.
Hard ChoicesCaption to confirmOctober 1940
Seen from behind, a young woman with a sheaf of corn under her arm looks out over the Weald as the sun goes down.
Shadows of WarCaption to confirmOctober 1940

Begin at the beginning

Read the first three chapters, free.

The story opens in September 1938, a year before the war, on a farm in the High Weald.

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