Farmer’s Boy, by
John R. Allan. £9
pp free UK.
Tenth
edition of this masterpiece by Aberdeenshire’s best ever writer. It is
the autobiographical account of the relationship between a small boy and
his grandparents on a small farm on Scotstoun Moor just outside
Aberdeen. It tells of the young man’s spirit of scientific enquiry
which encouraged him to break his grandmother’s eggs to see if they
had been successfully fertilised, and of the mother and father of
hidings administered for his
further enlightenment by a not unloving
grandfather. Farmer’s Boy received international acclaim for its 29
year-old author when first published in 1935. The Scotsman said
Allan’s “gutsy sense of humour fills the pages with laughter”.
While the Observer said, “This is a rich, course, tender, lovely and
perfect book – a book to have and to hold.” The tenth edition is
published by Birlinn.
An
eleventh edition of Farmer's Boy, in the form of an audio book, is also
planned. His son Charlie Allan has already recorded it and as soon as
his granddaughter Susie Malcolm gets enough time it will be issued to
make John Allan's classic available to those who can no longer read or
who can no longer be bothered to read.
If
you would like to know when the audio book becomes available, please
enter your E-Mail address below and click submit.
Paperback.
PP117. 10 illustrations by Douglas Percy Bliss. Foreword by Charlie
Allan.
