Books on The Countryside and Country Life

A funny, heartwarming and inspiring true story of life as a shepherdess in one of the most remote and beautiful spots in England.

The further adventures of Amanda Owen, who is watched by millions on Countrywise and Our Yorkshire Farm, as she juggles farming life with the demands of family on her remote Yorkshire farm.

In exquisite prose, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn, and includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil beneath: the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren,the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others.

5 stars

The highs and lows of being a vet in the Yorkshire Dales are perfectly captured in James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small. This edition contains If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet.

The phenomenal bestseller - 100,000+ copies - Everything you wanted to know about chopping, stacking and drying wood.

5 stars

How to reconnect with the season and live winter well by rediscovering ancient festivals, easy recipes and traditional decorations

It is difficult to think of a more quintessential symbol of the British countryside than the British Hedgerow, bursting with blackberries, hazelnuts and sloes, and home to oak and ash, field mice and butterflies. But as much as we might dream about foraging for mushrooms or collecting wayside nettles for soup, most of us are unaware of quite how profoundly hedgerows have shaped the history of our...

For the last six years of his life, Roger Deakin kept notebooks in which he wrote his daily thoughts, impressions, feelings and observations about and around his home, Walnut Tree Farm. This title collects his writings, capturing his restless curiosity about nature and his impressions of our changing world.

The first book to explore the cooking and communities of Shetland, with lavish photography of these spectacular isles

The Natural History of Selborne (1789)is written as a series of letters, which describe with wit and precision the flora and fauna White observes in his Hampshire parish. A classic of nature writing, this edition includes contemporary illustrations, a contextualizing introduction, and an appendix of readers' responses over 200 years.

In the first book from the highly successful Channel 4 television series, Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages, we explore the most interesting and beautiful examples of British village life in this lavishly illustrated book.

The ideal portable companion, the world-renowned Collins Gem series returns with a fresh new look and updated material.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANEDuring the Second World War, John Stewart Collis volunteered to leave his comfortable life as an academic to work on the land for the war effort.

In January 2006, a month or two after my father died, I thought I saw him again - a momentary impression of an old man, a little stooped, setting off for a walk in his characteristic fawn corduroys and shabby quilted jacket.

The author spent five years spent alone in a hillside cottage in Wales. He immersed himself in the rugged British landscape, exploring nature's unspoilt wilderness and man's relationship with it. It is the story of what it means to live in a place so remote that you may not see another soul for weeks on end.

A beautifully lyrical collection of essays on the natural world in Britain by the Guardian's country diary writer Paul Evans.

I am the luckiest man alive, because I get to live and work in the most beautiful place on earth: Matterdale in the English Lake District. In this book the author interweaves thoughts and reflections on the art of shepherding with his photographs of the valley, people and animals that make up the daily life of the fells.

Go on a journey with Robert O'Byrne as he brings fascinating Irish ruins to life.

Chris Yates, one of Britain's most insightful and lyrical writers, raises his gaze from his beloved rivers and ponds and takes us on a mesmerizing tour of the British countryside.

From Dean to Epping and Hatfield to Sherwood, this beautiful tribute to the natural history of our iconic British woodlands covers the natural history of our forests, the unique species and animals that inhabit them, and how they have changed the face of our landscape.