Humour the best medicine as Potterton publishes collection of columns on rural and farming life

Gerald Potterton has been writing a fortnightly column for the Irish Farmers Journal for around 20 years. He has a unique writing style which is often irreverent and typically humorous, but straight talking and down to earth.

His column is essentially focused on tillage farming but with a commentary on all sorts of matters which crop up in daily life on the Kildalkey lands.

Now, a selection of these columns has been brought together in a collection called 'Till – Farming Stories form The Plans of Meath' just published.

They are divided into four sections, by the seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – and Potterton says he has carefully chosen pieces which caused a bit of a stir at the time they were originally printed.

“In the main, the pieces are exactly as published but a few have been updated or luxuriously lengthened … the original thinking remains untouched!

“I certainly hope that many of these columns will bring a smile to your face, perhaps for the second time. Despite often being of a more serious disposition myself, I think that a little humour is important to keep the spirits up. We all need a bit of craic from wherever we can find it.”

He recalled that there was a column in the Reader's Digest called 'Laughter is the Best Medicine'.

“That is certainly true, and a bit of fun may bring a smile to a troubled face perhaps for the first time in a few days. Farming has become a very serious, stressful and often lonely occupation.”

Potterton also included a “decidedly non-humorous piece titled 'An awful spring' dated 23rd April 2016, when he was going through a particularly dark time.

“But as I hoped, that awful spring did indeed pass and the sunshine crept slowly and surely back into my life and of those around me. It usually does. You have to give it time.

To talk and and engage and smile with people is so important. We have no understanding of how much a friendly word can mean to someone who is in a bad old way.”

This is Potterton's second publication. His first, 'In the Wake of Giants' is a humorous and insightful account of the journeys on his narrowboat, The Tom Rolt, on the inland waterways.

The Tom Rolt is included in the illustration on the front cover of Till, by Terry Foley at Anú design in Skryne. Any profits made from the sale of the book will go to chosen charities.