The Story of

an Exbourne Maid

by Margaret Weeks.

THIS book is a delight, with an 'Exbourne Maid' telling the story of her very full life against the backdrop of radical changes in both composition and lifestyle to the village in which she was born, bred and continues to live.

Margaret Weeks was born in 1937 to farming folk and her life on a farm as a child and young woman are described vividly. Indeed, her descriptions of the way of life of those who earned their living from the land, their problems, hardships, and, at times, triumphs will rekindle memories and, probably create some nostalgia amongst those of a rural background — and 'certain age' — for a way of life long since passed into social history.

Margaret's book, however, is not merely the recollections of someone with an agricultural background; rather it is a chronicle of the changes in the village and parish of Exbourne during the past 70 plus years.

Educated locally, then at Okehampton Grammar School, she leads the reader through the fraught years of the second world war, then the austere late 1940s and 50s, when she was growing up, illustrating in her highly descriptive style the toughness of life for most rural and village folk, with its absence of the domestic comforts we take for granted today.

At the same time, though, the resilience, and positive spirit of people, with their strong sense of community, is there clearly for all to see. There is humour, also, throughout the book — including mention of a tom cat called 'Pansy.'

In a sense, it is a book of two parts; the second commencing with her marriage to David Weeks in 1966. For following their union, she moved into the post office at Exbourne and began a very different life. Again, the good, the bad and ugly of a new era — one revolving into the rural world we know today — are penned in a crisp, candid, yet sympathetic way. The chipping away by officialdom of the services which a village post office could provide, likewise the diminution of so many rural shops and businesses, the coming of increasing numbers of people from outside the area to live in the parish, and the partial decline of the agricultural industry; all this, and more, is encompassed. Yet the book is never maudlin or sentimental and certainly never moves in the direction of the 'things ain't what they used to be' syndrome.

Rather, the author tells us of how the village has evolved in positive terms, of how her husband David and herself have involved themselves in community activities, of her being for a while the church organist, of her occasional public readings of the Devon dialect — and of her life-long love of horses.

Margaret Weeks has written a book which will fascinate and entertain folk well beyond the boundaries of Exbourne — also indeed beyond those of Devon. A recent and well illustrated history of a parish, it is never parochial while although an autobiograph of her life, it is never introspective. Rather, it is, to paraphase a slogan used to describe a much loved radio series — 'a fascinating story of country folk' — and it will captivate.

'The story of an Exbourne Maid' by Margaret Weeks, is published in association with Bound Biographies and is available in bookshops priced at £7.99.

TED SHERRELL