H E. Bates The Fallow Land

SANWAL

(3 stars; 2 reviews)

Saturday-Night Theatre Sat 14th Jul 1973, 20:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM The Fallow Land: the novel by H.E. Bates, adapted for radio by David H. Godfrey.   ’It's always been the same-always has been and always will be. If you're not master of the land, the land will be master of you. Nothing's so sure as that.' Producer: David H. Godfrey   Fairground attendant: William Eedli Jess Mortimer: Geoffrey Matthews Deborah: Denise Bryer Mrs Arbuthnot: Joan Sanderson Mr Mortimer: Charles Simon Mrs Mortimer: Kathleen Helme Alma Wolstenholm: Jane Knowles David as child: Olwen Griffiths Benjamin as child: Sandra Clark Dr Starling: Peter Williams Sophie Sharman: Gretta Gouriet David as man: John Forrest Benjamin as man: David Valla   Mr Twelvetree: Brian Halnes   Mrs Twelvetree: Hilda Schroder   Anthea Twelvetree: Julie Hallam Government Official: Anthony Hall Ada: Sandra Clark The Fallow Land was the author’s fourth novel, his first set in the English Midlands around about the time of the first World War. It is a sort of historical novel about a rural world which has long since disappeared, and is not written today. It was to some degree inspired by Bates’s childhood memories of his grandfather Lucas and it is said that it is a least partly the old man’s story. It concerns the struggle of three generations of a farming family in the Nene Valley –most notably the unfortunate Deborah Loveday. Deborah marries Jess Mortimer, who soon leaves her to embark on a life of dissipation, while she remains to work the farm with Mortimer’s old man, a task to which she devotes herself throuhgout the rest of her life with passion and courage, while bringing up troubled sons Benjamin and David. The novel was highly praised at the time of its publication, and the pity is that it is probably largely forgotten today, and it is unlikely to be in print. [goodreads]

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.