From 1927 to 1934 Dirk spent his holidays on the Sussex Downs with his sister Elizabeth and their devoted but strict nanny, ‘Lally’. It was a time of the gleaning at the end of the summer, of harvests and harvest mice, of oil lamps, of wells and of incredible, enchanting adventure. Seen through the eyes of an innocent, shrewd young boy, Great Meadow recaptures an idyllic childhood, a lost time of love and gentleness, with its sounds and scents intact, while the world beyond prepared for war.