THE COUNTRY CHILD is a semi-autobiographical story about a girl growing up in the country. Alison Uttley has drawn on her own youth to produce memories so vivid and nostalgic that you can almost smell the honeysuckle and hear the owls calling at dusk. She writes about the small intense joys and sorrows of life on a small farm: the fun of haymaking, the sadness of favourite animals being slaughtered, and the close sweetness of Christmas celebrations in the farmhouse kitchen.

Here is a delightful record of old country ways at the turn of the century: a chronicle of birds and beasts, of simple country folk and the round of the farmer's year - all seen through the wide and wondering eyes of a child. There is the birth of a foal and the tragedy which follows, the first day at a new school, the bliss of a drive in a pony trap to a distant farm, the miracle of spring water pumped up to fill the great stone troughs, the making of patchwork quilts and reading aloud on winter nights, a courtship, a wedding - and the dreadful ritual of the annual pig-killing. Susan walks through the wood to the village school for her first party with a big cake under her arm. She drives with the farmer and her wife to receive her long-coveted prize. She wins a scholarship at a small grammar school and leaves her beloved lanes and woods for a country town. There is a peep at the farm kitchen where she does her homework by candlelight to the tune of jangling milk-cans, the clatter of heavy boots on the stone floors and the walk of the farm men. Alison Uttley's country books have frequently been called masterpieces. This one is certainly in that class.