Peter Halkon has edited this new second edition of the book and writes: "For some years now I have been asked if it was possible to produce a new edition of this volume. Hutton Press, an excellent publisher of Local History ceased producing books some years ago and Mr. C. Brook very kindly released rights to publication. Since 1990, time has passed and people who contributed to the first edition of this book have died including Doris Adamson, Bill’s sister and Bridget his daughter, Sefton Cottom, Alice Kitching and my parents. In 2020 the need to republish was spurred on by my wife and I moving to Nunburnholme, Bill’s birthplace, to live in the house my parents moved to fifty years ago this year.

A further reason for this edition was the revival of interest in Bill’s music, largely due to Jim Eldon, veteran of the Hull folk music scene who, at the time of writing, is continuing to play the Harrison family repertoire at various venues. For those interested in finding out more about the music, the article by Jim in Musical Traditions No. 7, Mid 1987 now available online (https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/harrison.htm)."

This autobiography describes Billy Harrison’s life in a bygone age. Born in the picturesque Yorkshire Wolds village of Nunburnholme in 1898, he was a gardener at Warter Priory, home of the Hull shipping magnate, Charles Wilson, and his formidable wife, Lady Nunburnholme. Bill helped in his father’s steam threshing business, and he vividly depicts the hard life of a worker on the land before the advent of the tractor.

Bill was called up to fight in the First World War, going over the top at Cambrai, an experience which is retold grippingly. A keen and able musician, Bill subsequently played fiddle in country dance bands and other village festivities. He moved to Millington in 1942, where he died aged 88 in 1986.

Dr Peter Halkon is a former Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Hull. He also has a keen interest in local history, folk music and dance. Brought up on a farm in East Yorkshire he first met Bill at the Gait Inn, Millington, in 1976, while visiting his parents at Nunburnholme, where he and his wife now live. The book is priced at £10.

The book is available from ebay and from the upcoming Pocklington Heritage Festival