Sheila Stewart’s classic account of rural life is now back in print in a new expanded edition to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Mont Abbott, whose remarkable story the book tells. This new edition contains previously unpublished photos, and a new section by local historian Graham Binns, giving details of some of the people and places mentioned in the book.

I can just remember in 1915, the last year of my schoolhood, playing all down the street in the dusk one evening when the old Super comed down the Lidstone Road in his horse-drawn police vehicle. The way he reined in his nag by the village school and plodded slow and heavy across to us children, summoning us to all to gather round, us knowed he were about to make an important announcement. “Childern! Motors is coming. After tonight all you 'ere childern must no longer play in this ’ere road.” He warn’t upset over the job; he were just solemnly a-warning us like, for our own safety. But somehow, all us knowed it be the end of an era.
From Lifting the Latch by Sheila Stewart

ISBN 0 953 2213 3 4/978 0953 2213 3 2; 256 pp + 16 pp photographs; £8.99 softback

Reviews

‘This delightful memoir of a rural labourer, Mont Abbott of Enstone, deserves to become a classic. He emerges as an articulate, sterling character with the countryman’s natural sympathy for his horses and his sheep. Over a period of two years he told the story of his life to Sheila Stewart and she has woven it, dialect and all, into a narrative that is both colourful and moving. … A brilliant antidote to our modern restlessness’ – John Saumarez Smith, Country Life 

‘Sheila Stewart spent two years recording the memories of Montague “Mont” Abbott as he sat across from her at the ancient kitchen table at his home in Enstone, in Oxfordshire. It is a countryman’s lyrical, unsentimental piece of social history that spans almost the whole of the 20th century. … A story to rival Lark Rise to Candleford as a classic of time and place’ – The Times

‘A work of art. The material is exceptionally rich and varied’ – Ronald Blythe, The Guardian

‘One of my favourite books … Definitely one of the "survival volumes"’ – Iona Opie            

‘Cow Ground, Fulwell’: etching by Michael Mattingley, specially commissioned for the new Day Books edition of Lifting the Latch. Mont Abbott worked on a farm in the tiny hamlet of Fulwell for much of his life, and eventually retired to a cottage here. Artist Michael Mattingley also grew up in this part of Oxfordshire, and he was chosen to illustrate the book because his earthy, robust style suited the story’s tone perfectly.