Back in the 1930s, horsepower and manual skills were central to farming communities, and a farm of 100 acres could provide a living wage for four families. Today's mechanical farms may be more productive, but a 700-acre holding provides only a marginal existence. Reg's book describes these changes in detail - not just on the farms themselves, but in the villages and communities, including the rural economy, leisure, wartime experiences, the farmhouse kitchen, livestock and crops. Although the changes that he describes are dramatic, he doesn't view the past through rose-tinted spectacles. At a time when farming is in crisis, he shows us clearly - through personal experience - that there never was a golden age: life has always been tough on the land.