The Milliner's Apprentice

Travel back in time to village life in rural Edwardian England, when patriotism was the norm, as was going to church on the Sabbath, and the village "bobby", schoolteacher and doctor were looked up to and respected by all. The author evokes her mother's childhood in Jasmine Cottage, Boroughbridge. The life of a country constable's family is recreated through story, anecdote and song. She describes Hilda's first day at school, the fortunes of her elder brother Willie, who became a footman in London, and the day Hilda won a prize for best essay on citizenship on Empire Day in 1915. She recalls Hilda's first day as a milliner's apprentice and her subsequent move to become a wartime post girl. She recalls, too, the horrors of World War I, which ranged from her father's brush with a low-flying Zeppelin on a bridge to the sadness of her brother Ernie's military funeral. Throughout, the close-knit nature of the community in which her mother lived is emphasized.