Books

The Chipping Campden Diaries of Christopher Whitfield 1923-1941

Edited and annotated by Paul Whitfield (Endymion Publications)

Christopher Whitfield (1902-1967) arrived in Chipping Campden in 1924 with a car, his cats and his books. He was determined to make his way as a writer although obliged to work in the family manufacturing business in Birmingham. He concentrated on poetry, then on short novels and essays published by the Golden Cockerel Press and Country Life. His later years were devoted to local history and he published the History of Chipping Campden in 1958.

He kept an extensive diary from the time of his arrival in Campden up to the early years of the Second World War. The diaries, which have been edited and annotated by his son, give a fascinating picture of life in pre-war England – a world that is now remembered by few – and record the approach of war, wartime life in Chipping Campden, with the Home Guard and in the Blitz in Birmingham and London.