Flora Thompson's semi-autobiographical Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy is known and loved the world over for its gentle depiction of rural life in Oxfordshire in the late 19th century, a way of life that was soon to vanish forever as mechanisation took over farming. The second book sees an older Laura still growing up in Lark Rise, but branching out into the wider world and visiting her urbanite cousins in the small country town of Candleford, and contrasting her life with theirs.