the memories of her peasant grandmother tell 100 years of Brittany's history

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A book always has a story. That ofAugustine begins with three notebooks, written between 2000 and 2007 by Régis Delanoë's grandmother. This Breton born in 1920 in a hamlet of Yffiniac, near Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d'Armor), the souvenirs of her life as a peasant, of which she spoke so often to those around her.

“When she turned 80, we convinced her to put down on paper this life she was telling us about. And she started to write,” recalls her grandson who lives today in Quevert, near Dinan.

A century of peasant Brittany

“I read these notebooks at the time. I thought about it again when he died in 2018.” Finding them at his grandmother's house, Régis Delanoë immersed himself in reading them. A true rediscoveryfar from the almost absent-minded one he had made when Augustine, with whom he shared his childhood in the family farmHillion submitted his writings to him.

This time, the eye of the journalist that he has since become saw the importance of this testimony crossing neara century of historyloaded with upheavals, of the Peasant Brittany.

Augustine recounts his childhood, the traumas of the First War, evokes the religious straitjacket on education and daily life, the post-war agricultural world… Speaking of 1950s-1960sshe thus describes a time when “builders, banks, food merchants and especially technicians were always pushing us to produce more. So we started investing. Invest: it was a word I didn't know yet. »

An era also marked by novelties, like the TSF which does, just like a first carhis entry into the house in 1957.

Régis Delanoë quickly wanted to share these very vivid memories:

It's a pretty fascinating century, which interests me. Augustine brings concreteness to it. To my knowledge, relatively few Breton peasants have written about their lives, and even fewer women.

An investigation

He could have publish these memories as they were, his grandmother's pen lent itself to it. But the journalist independent who regularly contributes to the magazine Bretons and the Rennes cultural review Bikini which he co-founded, chose, in view of this “raw material”, to confront small and large Stories. “Augustine had a non-nostalgic and quite factual vision of his past. She was quite lucid about the misery and religious imprint in which the Bretons lived. »

He therefore embarked on a investigation, to which his publisher, with whom he has already published a first work, The Breton Escape (2018), encourages it. And, over the months, collects testimonies from those around him, searches the parish archives, contextualizes by “summoning the historians” and completes the story of this brilliant schoolgirl who had to leave school at 12 to work at the farm.

“I don't know what Augustine would think of this book, but I imagine she would be proud. »

“Universal” story

It is this investigation, illustrated by the drawings and watercolors of Joëlle Bocel, an art bookbinder in Langrolay-sur-Rance endowed with “a lovely pencil stroke, quite delicate and well suited to the gentleness of Augustine’s story” which the reader follows in Augustine.

And story that everyone can make their ownthinks his grandson:

This story was close to my heart. It's in the first person, he talks about me, my family, but it's universal. There are Augustines in every family. His story, however anonymous it may be, has lessons to teach us.

That among others of the transmission, which he took the measure of, sometimes regretting no longer having Augustine near him to ask him for details.

Will his book arouse the desire in some to collect the memories of those around them? The idea has in any case makes his way in a writing workshop in Carnac (Morbihan) who, since the publication, contacted the Quévertois, with the idea of ​​building on his work to launch a local research project.

Régis Delanoë, Augustine, a century of BrittanyLes éditions du Coin de la rue, 2024, 247 p. Price: €22.50. Signing Saturday, November 16, 2024, at the Le Grenier bookstore, in Dinan, at 3 p.m. Then, Saturday November 23, at 2 p.m. at Cultura de Langueux and, in December: Tuesday 3 at 6 p.m. in Moncontour (L'Abri du Temps bookstore), Friday 6 at 6 p.m. in Guingamp (Mots et Images), Saturday 7 afternoon in Rennes (Book Forum), Saturday 21 in Chantepie and Sunday 22 in Saint-Grégoire (Leclerc).

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