This is an affectionate and humorous look at the life of the small Aberdeenshire farmer through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is full of folk wisdom and anecdotes from the people who made that farming community the prosperous thing it became from Nature’s rather meagre bounty.
Part social history, part family biography, we trace the history of the farm and it’s farmers from 1837, when the author’s great, great grandfather arrived, through six generations to the present day.
It is the story of a time forgotten, of an evolution in farming techniques and attitudes and of a family living and growing through it all.
Charlie Allan was born in Stirling and was brought up on the farms of Aberdeenshire before going to Aberdeen University, where he graduated with a first in economics. He taught economics in Glasgow, Strathclyde and St Andrews Universities until 1974 when he gave up academic life to return to his family to farm at Little Ardo, Methlick in Aberdeenshire. This return coincided with the beginnings of a broadcasting career which included five years as a producer for BBC radio’s farming output in Scotland and stint for the BBC World Service. He went on to write a column for the Press and Journal every week for ten years and is now in the 19th year of his column Farmer’s Diary.
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