Hanmer in the war years and after is the setting for the autobiography written by Lorna Sage. The book draws substantially on her grandfather’s diaries of life in Hanmer. Lorna went to the village school in Hanmer and the Girl’s High School in Whitchurch. There she met Victor Sage. She married young and was a brilliant student at Durham University. She became eventually professor of English at the University of East Anglia and was a writer and reviewer. ‘Bad Blood’ was her last book and won the Whitbread Award for the year 2000.

Lorna Sage was born in Hanmer Vicarage on 13^th January 1943. She spent her early years in Hanmer vicarage during and after the war. Her mother Valma was the daughter of the then vicar of St Chad’s Hanmer, Canon Meredith Morris. Canon Morris is still remembered with respect and affection by the older people of Hanmer for his marvellous preaching, which drew crowds from far and wide. He also enlivened the village with pantomimes and shows that he produced in the village hall. Valma was a star of many of these shows.

Lorna’s father was local man Eric Stockton son of a local haulage firm owner. In a remarkably achievement Eric rose through the ranks during the war to the rank of major. On his return he continued the family firm with his brother Albert, churchwarden of St Chad’s for many years. The Stockton family moved to 4, The Arrowery, Hanmer and from there to Pear Tree Lane in Whitchurch.

Many of the places described in her book can still be found on a walk round Hanmer. The church, her grandfather’s pulpit, and her choir stalls are still there. The schoolroom is still there inside the modern extended school building. The vicarage has been reduced in side and modernized. No. 4, The Arrowery is still in use. The houses of her childhood friends are still there opposite and next to the vicarage although both are substantially improved. The mere is still there unchanged from the stories told in her autobiography.

Entered 3 Janaury 2011 by BB