Goats Are Horrible by Margot MacFadyen née Phelps

Thanks to the University of Roehampton

Title: Goats are Horrible 

Author: Margot MacFadyen née Phelps

Publisher: Johns and Fairfield 

Source book: Jutland Cottage by Angela Thirkell

During WWII Margot Phelps and her mother kept goats. Admiral Phelps was retired on a tiny pension but always felt it necessary to offer generous hospitality to serving naval personnel. One of Margot and her mother’s money making schemes was goat keeping. They also kept hens and grew as many vegetables as they could. Margot frankly tells us that goats are horrible and she hates them, and their milk tastes beastly, but lots of refugee mothers thought it was better for their snotty little children than cow’s milk. So the Phelpses made a small living from the milk.

When it is suggested she write this book, Margot says “but it’s awkward to write about things you loathe”, and “they stamp on your feet and you can’t stamp on theirs because they don’t stick out like ours”.

Margot was persuaded to write her sadly untitled book (I wouldn’t normally list a book without a title; but we have the author and the publisher so I think that’s fine) and had some success with it. Obviously not a Sunday Times bestseller, but all the goat club members bought it, so that was probably quite a lot of people.

I think Margot had a sense of humour so perhaps she called her book Goats are Horrible. It was published as part of a popular series of little books about things like tomato growing, and artificial mushrooms (I know! what could this mean?) and things of that sort. Miss Bent (who also types Miss Hampton’s books) types her manuscript for her.

I’ve only really encountered goats in Switzerland (astonishingly smelly), and on Escape to the Country (extremely cute looking).

Thanks to NPR