{"product_id":"anne-hughes-her-boke-book","title":"Anne Hughes: Her Boke [Book]","description":"176 pp. Edited by Mollie Preston, with an introduction by Michael Croucher and linocuts by Tony Evora. From the introduction: \"In one way Anne Hughes needs no introduction. There are few characters in literature who establish themselves with the reader so rapidly, so vigorously, so attractively. Ideally one should step straight into Anne Hughes' kitchen, experience her life on a remote Herefordshire farm, and only then turn to the Introduction for the answers to a few questions. The most important one is, of course, whether the diary ever existed or whether, for all its charm, it is just a clever fake. I have to admit that I wanted to believe in it because I fell in love with its heroine, but it is only fair to say at the outset that there is no absolute proof of its authenticity. There are, however, some persuasive arguments in its favour, as I discovered when researching a documentary series 'Family Portraits', for the BBC. The programmes dealt with family reminiscences - the lore, the legends, the characters, the jokes which go to make up a family history - and one of my colleagues gave me the Diary of a Herefordshire Farmer's Wife to consider. The text had been originally published in the Farmers Weekly in 1937 and my immediate reaction on reading it was that it would make marvellous television. So I embarked on the task of tracking down the provenance of the diary. I tried all the usual sources to trace Jeanne Preston, the owner of the diary, to no avail, and the next stop was a visit to the offices of The Farmers Weekly. I had always imagined that these would be cosily rural, like an old fashioned newspaper office in some market town - the reality was a modem office block in Croydon which, disappointingly, boasted no old files and no ancient retainer from those early years.\"","brand":"The Folio Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39568353886278,"sku":"2317386","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1232\/9510\/products\/2317386.jpg?v=1635790193","url":"https:\/\/ym-demo.myshopify.com\/products\/anne-hughes-her-boke-book","provider":"Yesterday's Muse","version":"1.0","type":"link"}