In the mid-1970s, the author, Sydney Higgins, was living in rural Suffolk where he became friends with local old men and women and spent hours listening to their songs and their fascinating accounts of their lives and experiences. At the funeral of one of these elderly friends, he realised that his memories off the previous eighty years and the story of his life had died with him. It was then he decided to record and transcribe some of his conversations with his village friends. It was not then his intention to use the material to write a book. Decades later, he re-read the transcripts and became aware that, although the speakers had died years ago, their voices from the past were demanding to be heard. 'Sweet Sorrel' records what they had to say.