Books from the Attic

Alice Taylor takes a look back at the well-used schoolbooks she used in her youth in the 1940s and 1950s. Flicking through the pages of the books and recalling poetry and prose she learned at school, Alice reminisces about these texts, how she related to them and how they integrated with her life on the farm and in the village.

In her warm, wise way, Alice reflects on poems and stories on topics ranging from birds, trees and nature to fairy tales and legends, and ties them in with her own knowledge and memory of traditional country life.

Containing the text of the poems that readers will remember from their own school days, and evocatively illustrated with photographs of the school books and Alice's notes on them, as well as nature, flora, fauna and objects associated with schools of old, this is a reminder of childhood days and a treasure trove of memory.



I loved Alice Taylor’s To School through the Fields. I loved Alice herself … Even though she was writing about Cork, we had all these characters she wrote about in the book here in Donegal, similar people here that we could identify with … The book is a lovely record of country life in Ireland in those days



Warm, wise



The beloved Inishannon-based author also takes a hip down memory lane in this charming chronicle of life in rural Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s, as seen through the schoolbooks she has kept from that time. The poetry, legends, stories and history of her childhood bring back memories of a different way of life



It’s definitely going to strike a chord with a lot of people



For your uncle/aunt/grandparents: Books from the Attic by Alice Taylor: Her books have been perennial favourites since Taylor wrote the bestselling To School Through the Fields. Here, she writes about the books she has loved