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 HOPE BOURNE

Born: Hartland, Devon, 1920
Lived: Porlock, Withypool
Recording made: 2001
Length of recording: 2 hrs 7 mins

To read a summary of the contents of the oral history recordings click CD1 or CD2. 

Listen to an audio clip by clicking wma or mp3.  (Click here for information about downloading audio clips)

Hope Bourne talked for the archive sitting in the shade of a hedge on Withypool Common, looking across to Ferny Ball. She lived in a remote caravan there, above the river Barle, for over 20 years. Getting up at 5am she'd do the farmer's stock, write her journal, and then go for a 20 mile walk with her sketch pad, mapless, guided by an inner compass.

She followed the hunt on foot, shot and fished, never washed up, and ate 1lb of meat a day. Which, she says, is why she didn't feel the cold. She believes that hunting and farming are the backbone of Exmoor.

With no money, she turned to journalism, writing a column for the local paper and several books which she illustrated herself. She sent her first book, written in pencil, to Anthony Dent. He returned it neatly typed and visited in person shortly afterwards.

She lives in Withypool now, her garden thick with vegetables, flowers and bantams.