Lucky is the Name

Alf Burrows was born in 1904, the youngest of eleven children. His father, a farmer named Lucky Burrows, founded a little empire that would see all of his six sons become farmers in Mid Suffolk. Near the end of his life in 1968 Alf wrote this story, describing in detail a way of life that is now long gone. Beginning well back in the 19th century, we hear of Lucky and his wife Alice, who started with nothing, but were able through hard work and good management to make a success of their lives. We read of the sacrifices the family all had to make along the way and why so much of it eventually came to naught. The story includes murder, suicide, war and disaster. But as well as the hard times, there are wonderfully comic scenes and heart-warming moments. Small mid-Suffolk villages and hamlets are to the fore - Wickham Skeith, Dagworth and Harleston in particular. Above all, here is a window on a past way of life that for people like Alf Burrows, lasted until not so very long ago.