‘I have written a book which gives me much pleasure. It is a kind of full-length portrait of a small country town between the wars. The sort of life that will never come back,’ John Moore wrote to T. H. White in the summer of 1945.
That book was Portrait of Elmbury, and we’re delighted to announce that it’s now available to readers again, published in a cloth-bound hardback Plain Foxed Edition. These sturdy little books, bound in duck-egg blue cloth, come in the same neat pocket format as the original SF Editions.
Portrait of Elmbury is the first volume in the trilogy based on his home town that Moore wrote shortly after the Second World War, following it in 1946 with Brensham Village and in 1948 with The Blue Field. These books paint a picture of a lost rural world which is powerfully nostalgic yet unsentimental, and you can buy all three volumes of the Brensham trilogy together for a small discount. To tempt you further, please click here for an excerpt from the preface to our edition of Portrait of Elmbury, written by the late, great Jeremy Lewis. And continue to scroll down for a selection of seasonal reading recommendations and brilliant best first biographies.
With best wishes, as ever, from the SF office staff
Jennie, Anna, Hattie & Jess