Wingfield's World (Book review)

Dan Needles Wingfield’s World (2011) The wonderful Letters from Wingfield farm, all of them. It’s a complete world that Needles has (re-)created, one that I was loathe to leave, and will revisit regularly. Doug Wingfield is a Bay Street financial wizard who wants to get back to the authentic, simple life, so he buys a near-derelict farm, the Fisher place, on the 7th line of Persephone Township somewhere im Southern Ontario. The series started as a short play, additional instalments followed, some made into TV shows. While much of the material is stereotypical, the characters have the ring of truth. Dan Needles denies basing them on real people, and in the strict sense this is no doubt so; but a fictional character may combine features of several real people, which I think is the case here. Anyhow, viewers and readers will willingly suspend any lingering disbelief.
      I’ve heard these lovely monologues on the radio, watched them on TV, and saw the last one on stage. They lose nothing by being offered in print. Knowing the outcomes of the stories doesn’t spoil them, but allows us to savour the full range of the human comedy as revealed on the Seventh Line of Persephone Township. Highly recommended. ****