Synopsis of Foxden Acres
James is the heir to the Foxden Estate, Bess the daughter of the head
groom. Bess is a scholarship girl,
lodging at Mrs McAllister’s boarding house while training in London to become a
teacher. She has the brains, the
determination and the ambition to transcend barriers of class and gender.
With offers of a teaching job in London and Lowarth in Leicestershire, Bess
opts for Lowarth in order to be near James who has joined the RAF and is
stationed locally. When she learns that James
is engaged to Annabel Hadleigh, (who is his social equal) Bess returns to
London, to her first teaching post and to good friends. Within a few weeks an encounter with a rapist
changes her life, and takes away hopes of love forever.
War breaks out and London’s schoolchildren are evacuated. Bess leaves her job and returns to Foxden, at
James’s request. While James trains to be an
RAF bomber pilot at a nearby airfield, Bess turns Foxden Acres into arable land
with the help of an Army of Land Girls.
Soon
the Blitz is setting London aflame. The
Midlands too is scarred by war: conflict in the air increases and Polish airmen
crash land in a Foxden field. Bess’s
brother escapes from Dunkirk. While he
recovers in a hospital in Kent, he meets and falls in love with Annabel
Hadleigh.
On a visit to London Bess finds her old lodgings blitzed to rubble and
Mrs McAllister missing. Bess persuades
her homeless housemates, and the children of Jewish friends, to leave London
for the safety of Foxden.
Traditional social barriers come
crashing down when Flying Officer James Foxden falls in love with Bess. Before he embarks on a dangerous mission over
Germany, he asks Bess to marry him on his return, but he is killed.
Bess is distraught but the war has taught her that there are many kinds
of love. When the war has ended and her
work on the Foxden estate is done, she knows she must let go of the past and
move on. She opens her heart to an old
friend who has loved her for many years.
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