A Horseman Riding By is a 1966 novel by R. F. Delderfield

R. F. Delderfield

Ronald Frederick Delderfield was a popular English novelist and dramatist, many of whose works have been adapted for television and are still widely read.-Childhood in London and Surrey:...

 that starts in 1902 at the tail end of the Boer War

Boer War

The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....

 and is continued in the sequel to end in the summer of 1965. It is set in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 in the early 20th century. It was to some extent an elegy for the traditional society which was blown apart by the First World War. Delderfield wrote at least one sequel, some accounts describe it as part of a trilogy, but this may be due to confusion because it was published in two parts in the USA.

It was made into a BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television serial in 1978. The BBC did not adapt the remainder of the series of novels, but a few years later they adapted another of Delderfield's novels, To Serve Them All My Days

To Serve Them All My Days

To Serve Them All My Days is a novel by British author R. F. Delderfield.First published in 1972, the book was adapted for television in 1980...

.

Long Summer Day

The first novel is “Long Summer Day”. The novels are all set in south Devon with the first one covering the years of the long “Edwardian afternoon” after the death of Queen Victoria and follows the trials and tribulations of the main character, Paul Craddock, and later Craddock’s wife and their growing family.

Post of Honour

The second novel “Post of Honour” covers the years from 1914 through to May 1940 with the Dunkirk evacuation. However the first chapter catches up with the main characters and events from 1911 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The second novel finishes with the “Miracle of Dunkirk” with Craddock’s eldest son Simon, returning safely from France.

The Green Gauntlet

The third and final novel “The Green Gauntlet” is in two sections, part one picks up the story of the Craddock family in February 1942 and runs through the rest of the Second World War and the culmination of the D Day landings, the story then takes us on to the end of the war just before V.E. Day. Part two gets underway with the V.E. Day celebrations in May 1945, then follows the Craddock family fortunes through the 1950s and into the mid 1960s.

External links

• IMDB entry