Gerald Ponting -
writer, publisher, photographer, lecturer,
based in central southern England
Throughout 1923, a young lady named Nancy Thring, living in Oxford at the time, chose a few lines of poetry for each day of the year, reflecting the changing seasons in the English countryside.
Seventy years after Nancy had kept her Diary, I discovered the small hand-written volume by chance. I decided to illustrate her chosen verses photographically. Most of my slides were taken in Hampshire and Dorset, including the New Forest, Crab Wood, Flexford nature reserve, the Itchen and Hamble valleys, the Purbeck coast and Exbury Gardens. Traditional farming scenes were photographed at Manor Farm Country Park.
With the addition of appropriate music, the resulting 50-minute slide show is an unique evocation of the English countryside, which has been greatly appreciated by over 90 societies since 1994.
A small booklet is also available, which includes a complete transcript of the entire diary as well as a brief biography of Nancy Thring (later Mrs Nancy Bourke).
Thanks to the assistance of Peter Reynolds of Brook Video Services, Nancy Thring’s Country Diary is also available as a 31-minute VHS PAL video.
The wintry hedge was black,
The green grass was not seen.
Primrose, first-born child of Ver
Merry Springtime's harbinger.
Acorns ripe, down-pattering
While the autumn breezes sing.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet
Though to itself it only live and die.
Web-site created by Gerald Ponting using Serif WebPlus 9.
Latest revision of this page : November 2005.
Nancy Thring’s
Country Diary
Slide presentation, booklet and video
