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# The Working Class Library Episode 4: Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson
- URL: https://thebeemagazine.com/the-working-class-library-episode-4-lark-rise-to-candleford-by-flora-thompson/
- Published: 2025-09-04T15:29:02.000Z
- Updated: 2025-09-05T12:56:45.000Z
- Description: Richard and Claire are joined by novelist Sarah Hall to consider Flora Thompson’s memoir Lark Rise to Candleford.
- Author: Richard Benson
- Tags: Podcast

For this episode, Richard and Claire are joined by novelist [Sarah Hall](https://www.sarahhallauthor.com/?ref=thebeemagazine.com) to consider Flora Thompson’s memoir [Lark Rise to Candleford](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/lark-rise-to-candleford-flora-thompson/4850914?aid=15568&ean=9780198796695&&ref=thebeemagazine.com).

These days, Lark Rise to Candleford is perhaps the best-known English rural memoir in print. Thanks in no small part to the BBC’s 2000s TV adaptation, and historic class-washing in its jackets and illustrations, it is commonly thought of as a rather cosily nostalgic book. In reality, however, it is strongly class-conscious and political. Why is Thompson’s trilogy not celebrated as a classic of working-class literature? 

If you have any thoughts or comments on the show, please come and chat to us on our social media channels. 

### **Books and Authors Mentioned**

Elizabeth Gaskell – [Cranford](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781838573751?ref=thebeemagazine.com)  
Sarah Hall – [Burntcoat](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571329342?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Haweswater](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571315604?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Helm](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571383559?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [How to Paint a Dead Man](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571315635?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Madam Zero](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571290024?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Sudden Traveller](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571345052?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [The Carhullan Army](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571315628?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [The Electric Michelangelo](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571315611?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [The Wolf Border](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780571258130?ref=thebeemagazine.com)  
Barbara Hammond & JL Hammond – [The Village Labourer](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781845880569?ref=thebeemagazine.com)  
DH Lawrence – [Lady Chatterley’s Lover](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781454953128?ref=thebeemagazine.com)  
Charles Dickens – [The Old Curiosity Shop](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9781528716918?ref=thebeemagazine.com)  
Flora Thompson – [Bog-Myrtle and Peat](http://johnowensmith.co.uk/flora/BMP-A5.pdf?ref=thebeemagazine.com), [Lark Rise to Candleford](https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15568/9780198796695?ref=thebeemagazine.com)

### **Other Links:**

[The Catholic Fireside](https://www.victorianperiodicals.com/series3/single%5Fsample.asp?id=125622&ref=thebeemagazine.com)  
[Laura’s reading in Lark Rise to Candleford](https://bagfullofbooks.com/2022/09/23/over-to-candleford-and-candleford-green-by-flora-thompson/?ref=thebeemagazine.com)  
[The Juniper Hill enclosures](http://www.stevebishop.net/flora-thompson-didnrsquot-mention-the-guerilla-war-of-juniper-hill?ref=thebeemagazine.com)

[An Introduction to Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora ThompsonLark Rise to Candleford is a classic of English working-class literature, but is commonly thought of as a cosy, nostalgic memoir. Why?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/56/fc56b9ab-b4c1-4291-8dc6-e491452ed510/content/images/icon/favicon-12.png)The BeeGeorgia Poplett![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/56/fc56b9ab-b4c1-4291-8dc6-e491452ed510/content/images/thumbnail/flora-thompson.jpg)](https://thebeemagazine.com/an-introduction-to-lark-rise-to-candleford-by-flora-thompson/)

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