This is a lovely book! For those who do not know (a grouping that would have contain me a few short weeks ago) George Crabbe was a Suffolk poet who was the antidote to the Lake poets and those who eulogised country life. Crabbe was aware that the countryside, like the town, could be a hard place to live.

Crabbe was an apothecary's assistant for much of his life, with a brief sojourn to Leicestershire, where he became a vicar. His son tells us that when Crabbe left the parish, the church bells were rung in celebration! He seems to have been more successful in his medical career and it seems that he encouraged the patients to chat, providing stories of everyday life which found their way into his poetry.

Crabbe came to my notice as the source for Benjamin Britten's opera, Peter Grimes. It is pleasing to note that the modern Hollywood attitude to the original story is not new: Britten changes Grimes' character to an almost unrecognisable level! ( )