David Hill started work on THE FARMHOUSE TREE in 1976, 14 years after death of his father aged 62 when he was 16.

“Born out of time I suppose, parents married in 1931 when mother was 21and father nearly 30.  Another 16 years, and in 1947 the stork located the gooseberry bush and I was born. No electricity until I was 16, and no mains water or mains drainage. Farm work done with a shire horse. And how I loved the gay harvests, the scent of crushed chamomile, crushed by hoof and boot and the heat under the hayshed’s  galvanised iron roof at the end of the evening when the final load was being pitch forked in. The first ride home  on the cart load of hay. Lurch to the right, lurch to the left. Holding on tight to the lade and the rope.The brush of a low beech branch and the flight of swallow and martin replaced by the wing of bat….But I go on.This probably gives you a taste of the book. A childhood remembered with love.”

“The Farmhouse Tree”  can be obtained by ordering at any bookshop for £12.99 or direct from publisher …Jayde Design. Make cheque out for £12.99 to Jayde Design and send to Jayde Design, 21 Honor Oak  Road,Honor Oak,London SE23  3SH. This includes p/p.

All royalties are going to David’s old primary school at Bishops Nympton and Michael Morpurgo’s Farms for City Children.