author
Arthur Herbert Savory
A country gentleman and observer of village life, he turned the everyday world of an English manor into a warm, detailed portrait of rural England. His best-known book captures farming, local characters, and the changing rhythms of the countryside with the eye of someone who knew it closely.
1 Audiobook
Grain and Chaff from an English Manor
by Arthur Herbert Savory
About the author
Arthur Herbert Savory was an English writer best known for Grain and Chaff from an English Manor, published in 1920. The book grew out of his close connection to Aldington Manor near Evesham in Worcestershire, and it is remembered for its lively picture of village customs, farm work, and the people who shaped country life there.
Records from the Badsey Society identify him as born in 1851 in Lower Clapton, Middlesex, and note that he studied at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. That background helps explain the practical, grounded quality of his writing: he was not simply admiring rural life from a distance, but writing from long familiarity with the land and the work it demanded.
What makes Savory interesting today is the way he preserves small human details along with a sense of place. Grain and Chaff from an English Manor offers more than nostalgia; it gives modern readers a firsthand glimpse of late Victorian and early 20th-century English village life, seen with affection, humor, and careful attention.