David J. Eveleigh – författare

The Victorian farmer occupied a pivotal role in rural society, paying rents to the landowner and providing employment for the labourer. This book explores the world of the farmer during Queen Victoria's reign, which was a period of considerable change on the farm as the forces of industrialisation made themselves felt. Using contemporary observations, illustrations and museum collections, David J. Eveleigh looks at the working farmer and everyday life in the farmhouse - the furnishings and household tasks. The picture which emerges is more complex and more fascinating than the romantic images which so often shape our views of farming life.

Born into the gap between the eras of austerity and boom, David grew up in Merseyside amid an inexorable tide of progress, developing a fascination with the past. With a vivid eye for detail and boundless childhood curiosity for everything from steam trains to ‘My Old Man’s a Dustman’, his account documents the uneasy relationship between worlds old and new. Featuring unique photographs and authoritative observations on architecture, social and local history based on forty years' work in museums and heritage conservation, Escaping Suburbia offers a different view of the ‘swinging’ sixties.