A countrywoman's journal - Margaret Shaw

The English countryside of the 1920s, still largely unspoiled by intensive agricultural practice and overdevelopment, is revealed in all its freshness by this unique two-year record kept by Sussex countrywoman Margaret Shaw. The diary, beguiling in its simple pleasures and direct approach, lively and humorous, is also beautiful, with the author's meticulous watercolour illustrations of the birds, beasts and flowers that enlivened her days. This high-quality facsimile reproduction offers a fascinating insight into an almost vanished world.

Flora and Fauna
Brilliant butterflies, songbirds and seabirds, wild flowers, bees and bugs: Margaret Shaw records in tender watercolour and warm prose the rich flora and fauna of the 1920s. In Shaw's world the eaves swarm with housemartins, elm trees still grow tall, and the hedgerows are full of 'quarrelsome, noisy wrens'.

'Marsh Marigolds in bloom round the ponds. Masses of Cowslips, Water Lilies leaves coming up. Field Wood Rush plentiful in the boggy ground. It has long silvery hairs on its alternate leaves. Gunnera Scabra leaves opening. Still warfare over the porch nest; saw two Blue Tits stealing the leaves from inside. The Nuthatch arrived with an angry 'Tz.Tz'. Cannot think what the end of it will be!'

Landscape
Travelling widely in Britain and in France and Italy, between October 1926 and December 1928, Shaw chronicled her observations of the landscape in all its weathers and colours, whether 'a glorious sunrise' in Sussex, or 'sullen skies with angry clouds' in the Highlands of Scotland.

Discovery of the Diaries
Hidden in a drawer for over seventy years, the diaries were recently discovered by Margaret Shaw's long-time friend, farmer Reg Pritchard. The perfectly preserved pages of the two Windsor and Newton sketchbooks Shaw used for her diaries are as fresh and unblemished as when first created, the images vibrant and the writing clear.

'With fascinating observations and a meticulous hand, Margaret Shaw created a remarkable record of English wildlife in the 1920s.' Country Life