Anthony Painter

Brent Farm Anthony Painter

In November 1940 John Bennett, his motherm brother and sister are in their Anderson air-raid shelter when they receive a direct hit from a German bomb. His family, he believes, have been killed, but he is found lying in the bottom of a crater in a field in 1740. He had gone bck in time by two hundred years. He is taken in by the Romney family who farm the land on which his home existed in 1940. He is nursed back to health and soon finds himself as part of the family, workng on the farm and, using his talents as a cabinet maker, producing furniture for local people. He misses his life in 1940 and in particular his first love, Susie. But in time he settles for his life in eighteenth century England and eventually falls in love with Kathleen, the youngest daughter of the Romney family. In the simple and primitive society he finds himself in, his knowledge, skills and courage soon earn him respect, success and notoriety. But he reckons without the bigoted Church of England and the local vicar who sees him as a heretic, sorcerer and disciple of the devil. He is forbidden to see Kathleen, but they run away together and enjoy a brief period of unremitting joy until John is arrested, tried and hanged. He wakes up back in 1940 and serves in the army throughout the war until he meets Susie again. Was his experience a dream, or did he really travel back through time to 1740 and return again?