Gone to Earth

"This book is about England as it was just before the First World War, and how it has changed. It is especially revealing about how our conception of the countryside has changed. In this way, it is like The Secret Garden . I love another one by Mary Webb called Precious Bane . Mary Webb was incredibly popular at the time that my father published her. I think she was first published in 1917, and my father published her in 1935—so her books were among the first ten Penguin titles. Mary Webb is a bit like Thomas Hardy . There are elements about the wildness of the countryside, rather like Tess of the d’Urbervilles or The Woodlanders , both of which I absolutely adored. Yet it’s a very strange, unique book. It’s the story of an uneducated wild girl, growing up with her father – he makes coffins, and she makes the wreaths for funerals. And they both sing. They’re great singers. She’s incredibly beautiful but completely unaware of her beauty. And she loves everything wild. She has a wild fox that she takes with her everywhere. She doesn’t really want to be tamed. She wants to be a free person. “Mary Webb is a bit like Thomas Hardy” At the point the book opens, two men fall in love with her: the vicar and the local squire. He’s a randy old squire—as they should be!—and the vicar’s pure as driven snow. It’s really, really good, by which I mean it’s very readable. I won’t tell you the ending, because that would give it all away. It’s very evocative of that particular time; there are lovely descriptions of wild animals and countryside. I think it’s set in Shropshire. You read on just to find out what she’s going to say next. It also has a very funny foreword to it by John Buchan. I’m not sure if he liked it too much, but in the final line, he does say, “If this is not true magic, I don’t know where to look for it.”"