FREE: Strawberry Fields

The listing, Strawberry Fields has ended.

Life for migrant agricultural workers in England is no picnic but Irina and her fellow workers form a familial bond - one that is quirky and dysfunctional but very touching and well-drawn. A minor dispute with the field's farmer evolves into something close to a full-blown riot and the next thing you know Irina and her gang flee their trailers and embark on an adventure that takes them from Kent to a horrid chicken processing plant to London and Sheffield and points north. It isn't hard to think of Strawberry Fields as a contemporary Canterbury Tales - as played with an Eastern European accent and influenced by the comic sensibility of Monty Python. This is not to compare Lewycka to Chaucer by any means. But each character has a tale to tell (including a mongrel dog they pick up along the way - and Lewycka does a great job translating dog talk into English!) and their tales are funny and moving.