Richard Gatenby's Family Chronicle: Love, Marriage and Mortality in a Methodist Family in the North Riding, 1764-1923, edited by David Kirby (Summerfield Press, 2007), xv + 224 pages, frontispiece & 30 plates, index; price £19.95 (+£1.25 p&p).

    This rare surviving memoir is by Richard Gatenby, formerly postmaster in East Witton, who was born in Finghall in 1861, and is a personal evocation of life in Bedale and the nearby villages of Carthorpe and Finghall. His 'Family Chronicle', written in retirement, recreates the world of  an ordinary family of tenant farmers and butchers and their relations in the North Riding, interwoven from the 1860s onwards with Richard's own keen observations and treasured memories.

   

    Copies may be obtained from David Kirby, Fairfax House, 1 Castle Meadows, Snape, Nr. Bedale, North Yorks, DL8 2TT.

(cheques payable, please, to David Kirby).