This second volume of memoirs of growing up on a farm in the midlands in the 1950s and 1960s, told in the form of separate stories rather than chronologically, is of the same high standard as PJ Cunningham's first, The Lie of the Land. The Whip Hand tells of how a resourceful neighbour managed to fool his wife and feed his drink habit by secretly selling cattle and their best potatoes. Of the three "rebels" in The Unholy Trinity (rebelling against the secular and religious mores of the time), the author's uncle is the bravest because he has the most to lose. The Robin's Nest is an uplifting story about the author's father's respect for nature even though it meant more hard labour for him and his family. The Last Day of the Ploughman is a moving story of how their father handed down the "sacrosanct" art of horse ploughing to the author and his brother.
