Peggy Hewitt was born and bred in the Worth valley and has lived most of her life close to the Brontë moors. Her first published work appeared in Yorkshire Life and, since then, she has written many articles, short stories and poems on a variety of subjects.
I don't remember for certain where I got the idea of reading this book, but in case you're interested, take notice that it is in no case a Brontë biography : it's all about the moors and the people who lived there. The Brontës are just mentioned here and there because, how could they not be ! And if you're passionate about the old Yorkshire way of life, from the XIXth century to mid-XXth approximatively, or if you are from those moors, you'll love this book. If you're just a Brontë fan and are all about their life and writings, it is probably not for you.
This is not an essay per se, rather a collection of articles about odd jobs, old jobs, old people (some with a strong personality !) and their memories, particular places and their history, even ghost stories and witches. But you'll also find : a lady aeronaut, the Brontë bus company, a path to hell originating from a boiler, people so used to death that if they find themselves sleeping near a corpse, they turn the other way around and go back to sleep (what else could you do in the middle of the night ?), the old Oakley station (preserved as in the 1910s, complete with steam trains), the peregrinations of a 13 year-old girl to have her thumb stitched back (1923), cows eating plans of the Railway company and, of course, the trials Patrick Brontë had to go through to finally be able to move to Haworth.
The articles are not of equal interest, but mostly, they are very quaint and lovely to read, sometimes even funny.
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