Books on The Countryside and Country Life

'He writes so engagingly that it's hard to imagine that actual foraging can be more attractive than reading his accounts of it. ...[This book] is a treasure. It is beautifully produced, designed and illustrated.' - John Carey, The Sunday Times...

Some people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks' isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations. Their way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand, and has been for hundreds of years.

5 stars

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

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...

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.

'I am going to do the whole bloody lambing. I'm going to lamb all the lambs. I imagine myself lean and strong, with thin thighs, in attractive waterproof overalls, striding through the lambing shed like I own it....

Regular hive inspection and the removal of old combs helps to keep bees healthier and naturally disease-free.Top-Bar Beekeeping provides complete information on hive management and other aspects of using these innovative hives.

This beautiful book is a celebration of the mighty oak, through the passion and vision of artist Mark Frith. Mark has drawn large scale portraits of 22 of Britain's oldest living oaks, with exceptional detail conveyed in these intricate graphite works, bringing the ancient features of these majestic individuals to life on the page.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes this unique blend of nature writing and memoir: longlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2018

Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place. This is a guide to literature of nature, and a glossary containing thousands of remarkable words used in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales to describe land, nature and weather.

The Country of Larks - travel literature and nature writing describing a walk across the Chiltern Hills from High Wycombe to Tring in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson and along part of the route of the controversial HS2 railway. Includes Little and Great Missenden, the Ridgeway, Wendover, Chilterns Way and the Thames Path, fauna and flora.

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

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.

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.

A calendar of English husbandry, first published in 1933, with each month described and with wood engravings by the author, the famous artist and writer Clare Leighton, who also wrote Four Hedges.

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

5 stars

An exploration of the relationship between humans and the charismatic and elusive hare.

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.