Browsing recently in a charity shop, I came across a copy of a book I had at home on my shelf of treasured children’s books. I was young when I first read it and it proved to be a seminal book, one to which I have been indebted ever since. First published in 1937, it was written by a Wesleyan minister who roamed England in a horse-drawn caravan, writing as he went of the countryside and its wildlife. He called himself Romany.
Born in 1884 in Hull, “Romany” was George Bramwell Evens, the son of a true-blood gipsy mother and a Salvation Army lieutenant father. His fame grew gradually from the appearance of his first book A Romany in the Fields in 1929. This was followed by three more until 1937 when Out with Romany was published, the first in a series of six books which continued until his death in 1943. All the books became bestsellers and Romany became a household name with his Out with Romany programmes on BBC Radio. These began on BBC Northern Children’s Hour and went nationwide in 1938.
The programmes and books provided welcome relief and interest throughout the war, when everyone yearned for a romantic view of the countryside, a yearning that is still with us today.
The reason for Romany’s success was the skill with which he imparted expert knowledge of natural history with an air of relaxed enjoyment. He was the David Attenborough of his day for the young, initiating an enthusiasm for wildlife.
To appreciate his books we have to look to his formative years. Although his childhood was imbued with the Christian religion, a life devoted to it was not the sort of life he would have chosen for himself. His mother, in later years, admitted: “I gave him to the church before he was born,” and he never found the over-emotionalism of Mission meetings to his liking.
At school he was an all-round athlete, captain of football and cricket, had a talent for art and was a gifted musician. Fortunately, his headmaster interpreted the Bible in a way that treated equally the beauty of religion and the natural world around him. Steered as he was
into Wesleyan ways, he became a genuinely sincere and convinced Christian. A rebellious streak remained, however, and a tendency to be outspoken singled him out from the early days of his induction.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Spring 2017 من Evergreen.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Spring 2017 من Evergreen.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Rural Rides
How many of us search for a dream, and then spend a lifetime fulfilling it? Clough Williams-Ellis spent 20 years seeking the ideal location to build his Italianate village and 50 years building it. Originally he thought an island might be a possible location, but it was only when he came to an untamed peninsula on the breathtaking Traeth Bach tidal estuary that he realised he had finally found his chosen spot.
The Literary Pilgrim
Browsing recently in a charity shop, I came across a copy of a book I had at home on my shelf of treasured children’s books. I was young when I first read it and it proved to be a seminal book, one to which I have been indebted ever since. First published in 1937, it was written by a Wesleyan minister who roamed England in a horse-drawn caravan, writing as he went of the countryside and its wildlife. He called himself Romany.
Almanac
The Lady Of Vision.
Rural Rides
The Charm of the COTSWOLDS
Countrycall
I felt a strong affinity with the naturalist and writer Mary Gillham. I’d spent many years cycling and walking the Taff Trail — a Sustrans cycle route, stretching some 55 miles from Cardiff to Brecon — observing, recording and writing about the wildlife of the area. I had also spent many happy hours exploring Forest Farm Country Park, somewhere which Mary had got to know so well.
Animal Magic
Roger Redfern was a true countryman who enjoyed nothing more than wandering through the hills of England, Scotland and Wales in the weekends and holidays he wasn’t teaching in a Derbyshire school.
Snow At Christmas
Christmas — that most magical time of the year — and what signifies it most is snow falling gently from the sky and creating a magical white carpet on the ground. This image can’t help bring out the child in us all — remembering a childhood of snowball fights, sledging and building snowmen in the garden.
Our Christian Heritage
In Colsterdale, North Yorkshire, 10 miles from the cathedral town of Ripon and two miles from the tourist haven of Masham, lies the small village of Healey. In most respects a typical Dales community of picturesque stone houses along a single street, it boasts an unusual and striking place of worship, the parish church of St. Paul’s.
