This walking guide contains 20 circular routes, covering the very best of Bristol and Bath's wide-ranging landscape - from high in the Mendip Hills down to the Somerset Levels; through stunning Cotswold villages and along meandering waterways right out to the shoreline of the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel. Walks range in length from 3 to 6 miles, with recommendations for autumn, winter, spring and summer. Highlights include: Spring: A carpet of bluebells in Leigh Woods and Hawkesbury Upton in the Cotswolds; Summer: A seaside stroll at Sand Bay; Autumn: Dramatic colours at Westonbirt Arboretum and the deer park at Ashton Court; Winter: Wintering wildfowl along the banks of the River Severn and the starling murmuration over the Somerset Levels

A multi-layered memoir of love, acceptance, finding home and the redemptive power of nature.

In 2006, Mike Parker and his partner Peredur were witnesses at the civil partnership of their friends Reg and George, the first in the small Welsh town of Machynlleth. Years later, when Reg and George died within a few weeks of each other, Mike and Peredur discovered that they had been left their home: a whitewashed ‘house from the children’s stories’, buried deep within the hills.

On the Red Hill is the story of Rhiw Goch, ‘the Red Hill’, and its inhabitants, but also the story of a remarkable rural community and a legacy that extends far beyond bricks and mortar. It is a story that celebrates the turn of the year’s wheel, of ever-changing landscapes, and of the family found in the unlikeliest of places.

Adrian Bell's travels through East Anglia and lowland Britain reflect a world on the brink of change. Published in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, his down-to-earth descriptions of the countryside were shaped by his own life working the land. Whether it be hedgerow flowers, a livestock auction, traditional farmyard, village forge, wheelwright's shop, the arrival of the tractor in the harvest field, the work of the ploughman, shepherd or woodman, Men and the Fields captures the character of rural life before modern agriculture altered the landscape and changed forever the way we eat and live.This new edition restores the original colour lithographs and black and white line drawings by John Nash that appeared in the first edition.

The incredible memoir by international bestselling author of Where The Crawdad's Sing, Delia Owens and her partner Mark Owens', charting their time researching wildlife in the Kalahari Desert. Reissued and in full colour, for the first time since its original publication in 1984.

Carrying little more than a change of clothes and a pair of binoculars, two young Americans, Mark and Delia Owens, caught a plane to Africa, bought a third-hand Land Rover, and drove deep into the Kalahari Desert. There they lived for seven years, in an unexplored area with no roads, no people, and no source of water for thousands of square miles. In this vast wilderness the Owenses began their zoology research, working along animals that had never before been exposed to humans.

An international bestseller on original release, Cry of the Kalahari is the story of the Owenses's life with lions, brown hyenas, jackals, giraffes, and the many other creatures they came to know. It is also a gripping account of how they survived the dangers of living in one of the last and largest pristine areas on Earth.

ReWild Your Mind shows you how to connect with nature to be happier, healthier and more at peace with the world around you. Packed with wilderness skills and traditional crafts - from fixing a hammock in the woods and foraging for hedgerow medicine to finding moments of 'wild' in the everyday - this unique book enables readers to boost their wellbeing through getting outside. It is an invitation to reset, recharge and 'rewild' yourself. Weaved through the book is Nick Goldsmith's personal story of using nature to aid his recovery from PTSD. After several tours serving as a Royal Marine Commando in Afghanistan, Nick was left in a dark and desperate place. He tried conventional therapies but found true solace amongst nature, and now enables others to do the same.

This is the 45th Anniversary Edition of The Decline of an English Village. When The Decline of an English Village was first published in 1974, its appearance was greeted with immediate critical acclaim. As a young writer, born into declining village life, Robin Page's message simultaneously struck a chord and sounded a warning. Now, after forty-five years, it reappears with a new and updated introduction, in which political activist Robin Page exposes greed, political ineptitude, and social and environmental indifference as the driving forces behind the deterioration of village life and the communities around it. Robin Page transports readers back to a time when villages were founded on the value of community, and when people still worked the land in the traditional sense. He reflects and ruminates on his own experiences of rural life, raising sensitive topics, such as the intensification of farming, over-population, and environmental degradation in some of England's most beloved places. Robin shares his concern for the alarming loss of wildlife in England, and offers his own perspective on what he perceives to be the most pressing issues. His passion for English tradition, reflected through his involvement with the Countryside Restoration Trust, radiates from within the pages of this book, along with his enthusiasm for preserving the countryside and its wildlife. Throughout his life, Robin has observed dramatic changes in the way people live their lives. It's in this book that he reiterates the tragedy behind a countryside increasingly misused and abused in the name of urbanisation and industrialisation.

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2021* 'A wholly original, semi-autobiographical book on how to live, how to be calm and content with only a little, in a quietly humming garden' Daily Mail Beautifully illustrated, Seed to Dust is a reflective and restorative account of a life lived in harmony with nature. Marc Hamer has nurtured the same twelve acres of garden for decades. It's rarely visited so he is the only person who fully knows its secrets. But it's not his garden, and his relationship with its owner is at once distant and curiously intimate. In Seed to Dust, Marc takes us month-by-month through his experiences both working in the garden and outside it. We encounter new plants and wildlife, gardening folklore and the joys of manual work; we learn, too, about Marc's path from homelessness to family contentment, and the cycles of change that run through both the garden's life and our own. 'An absorbing combination of memoir, gardening folklore and natural history' Country Life 'Life-affirming... Absorbing' Sue Stuart-Smith, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Well-Gardened Mind

Jack Sheehan was one of eleven children born into an impoverished farming family on the Sheep's Head peninsula in southwest Ireland. Growing up in hungry times, he stayed on the farm all his eighty-three years, taking it over when his father died and steadfastly caring for its fields through the dormant 1950s and the better times that came in the decades that followed. He lived to see the eclipse of his farming world and to view with dismay the way encroaching property speculators and consumerism were changing the nature of his landscape. Jack Sheehan was born just as the Irish state was coming into existence and his life is as revealing of that country's history as the more familiar accounts of national figures. "Jack's World's" is illustrated in colour with specially commissioned photographs taken by three people, Danny Gralton, Ciaran Watson and Danny Levy Sheehan, who all knew Jack and know his farm. The book is also illustrated with maps, including one showing the farm's fields and their Irish names that were preserved by Jack, and photographs of early documents relating to his farm's history. The book's unique sources, in addition to the memories of friends and family who knew Jack and shared aspects of his world, include diaries kept by Jack from the early 1930s onwards.

'What's for tea, Clarrielove?' From the fabled kitchens of Ambridge come the recipes and gossip that fuel the nation's favourite village. Whether it's Susan's spicy chilli con carne on the hob or Helen's dramatic tuna bake in the oven, Jill's flapjacks stacked high or Alastair's Goan fish curry hotting up suppertime, this celebration of Ambridge life will take fans even closer to the heart of every Archers home. But this book isn't just a cook-along with our favourite families. It's full to the brim with tales and memories. The Archers Year of Food and Farming shares the ups and downs of the inhabitants of Ambridge and celebrates our countryside in all of its green and pleasant glory. Month-by-month, we learn more about the farming community and those big events in the Ambridge calendar: Shrove Tuesday and Easter, lambing, Open Farm Sunday, the village fete, Apple Day, the harvest, Stir-up Sunday and Deck the Hall. Rural traditions are alive and well in The Archers, but it's a contemporary world that is full of warmth, wit and the unexpected.

In this beautifully illustrated book, Oivind Berg traces the use of fire as a heat source, a stove and a social gathering point - indoors and outdoors - right up to the present day. He reveals the types of fire, the art of kindling, the characteristics of different woods as fuel, and the secrets of Norwegian live-fire cooking. The perfect fireside companion, with this book you can chop wood, send sparks flying and plan a feast all from the comfort of your armchair. More than this, you will gain a newfound respect for the creative and destructive powers of fire and its ancient rituals.

A tribute to the natural history of some of our most iconic British woods. The National Trust manages hundreds of woods, covering over 60,000 acres of England and Wales. They include many of the oldest woodlands in the land and some of the oldest living things of any kind - trees that are thousands of years old. From Dean to Epping, from Hatfield to Sherwood, this book covers the natural history of our forests and how they have changed the face of our landscape. Covering the different species of trees that give our woods their unique characters, the plants and animals that inhabit them and the way their appearance changes throughout the seasons, Woods is a fascinating and beautifully illustrated celebration of Britain's trees and the ancient stories that surround them.

This is a knitting book focusing on the sheep-to-shawl process by a well-known knitter, shepherd, and artisanal yarn producer. Gain an insider's view on fiber farming and yarn craft, from sheep to skein, all told through the eyes of shepherd and textile artisan Barbara Parry. Follow her flock over the course of a year and discover all the facets of life with sheep: from shearing day and lambing season, to preparing fiber for yarn. Along the way you'll find projects for the fiber obsessed by top knitwear designers; essays on country life, including planting an heirloom kitchen garden, harvesting winter greens for a holiday wreath, and making bluebird nest boxes; and over 100 photographs.

'Not a cosy series of reminiscences but a slice of bygone reality. This delightful collection of country curiosities shows rural life in the raw a hundred or more years ago. Hugely enjoyable, a real eye-opener and surprisingly useful!' Alan Titchmarsh A perfectly formed and beautifully presented collection of titbits from the ever-surprising pages of Country Life. Flitting from observations on cheese rolling in Gloucestershire to smuggling silk in Sussex, from Shakespeare's Avon to the vanishing sign language of country tramps ... and all by way of a charming rumination on the origins of the simnel cake. Within these lovely pages there will indeed be something for everyone. Classic writing on the idyllic British countryside, Wodehousian ruminations on fishing and golf, and moving accounts of beloved (and unusual) pets. With a highly entertaining blend of expert views and humorous asides, Curious Observationsis a perfect Christmas gift.

Ever since its publication in 2007, Eric MacLeod's memoir of his young family's years reconstructing and living in one of the most remote crofthouses in Scotland has remained one of our most popular titles, selling mostly in Scotland but travelling far and worldwide thanks to the area's many visitors. Sandstone Press is now happy and proud to present a second edition, complete with an additional chapter bringing the story of the family and the house bang up to date.

* Entertaining, informative, and packed with unusual facts * Illustrated in color throughout Pig, porker, hog, swine--however you refer to him, there is no doubt that the chubby quadruped with the curly tail and the big oink is regarded with enormous affection. The author explores the influence of the pig's characteristics and his quirky nature on our language, literature, and general outlook on life. Piggy appearances in the media, both ancient and modern, are celebrated with a wide array of quotations from such diverse sources as Horace, Shakespeare, Bunyan, and Kipling, not to mention Noel Coward, Beatrix Potter, and The Goon Show. Higgledy-Piggledy offers us a marvelous selection of sayings and proverbs concerning all things porcine. Entertaining, informative, packed with unusual facts, and meticulously researched, Richard Lutwyche's book at last does proper justice to the rich heritage of the pig. Higgledy-Piggledy will amuse and captivate all those who love these endearing and intelligent farmyard inhabitants.

"'I was warned by all those who knew me that to take on a project like this was madness.'"

""

At the peak of her fast-paced career, presenter and interviewer Selina Scott bought a house in the Tramuntana hills of Mallorca. It was a dilapidated old farmhouse without even mains electricity or water, but she had fallen in love with the beauty and peace of the surroundings, and the promise of an escape from her high-pressured job and unwelcome tabloid attention.

Selina begins to settle into Mediterranean life and spends time renovating the house. However, she soon realises that making the old house her home is going to be more difficult than she thought. From the unwelcome wildlife that insists on sharing her house, to dubious building work, locals both friendly and hostile, and a forest fire that threatens the whole valley, Selina's new life is full of unexpected challenges.

In this funny, elegantly written account of her Spanish years Selina tells us about the house that captured her heart, the neighbours that became friends, and those that didn't, the hills and wildlife that enchanted her, the building work that nearly broke her and, crucially, the dog that found her, and changed every single one of her best laid plans

An uplifting story of escape, change and friendship.

"'A terrific read, beautifully written'" Richard Madeley

'Deliciously tactile and meditative . . . to read this is to luxuriate in the land, and to connect to it and oneself' Bernardine Evaristo What fills my lungs is wider than breath could be. It is a place and a language torn, matted and melded; flowered and chiming with bones. That breath is that place and until I get there I will not really be breathing. Spurred on by her father's declining health and inspired by the history he once wrote of his small Devon village, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett delves through layers of memory, language and natural history to tell a powerful story of how the land shapes us and speaks to us. The Grassling is a book about roots: what it means to belong when the soil beneath our feet is constantly shifting, when the people and places that nurtured us are slipping away.

Canterbury Press is proud to have acquired these backlist Ronald Blythe titles, consisting of illustrated collections of the authors regular weekly column on the back page of the Church Times where, with a poets eye, he observes the comings and goings of the rural world he sees from his ancient farmhouse in the South of England. Each volume was critically acclaimed on publication.

Escape into nature with Matt Baker's fascinating journey through the natural year and family life on the farm 'A delight' Countryfile Magazine _______ Matt Baker finds his calm on the farm. Surrounded by nature with his family, dogs, array of sheep, Mediterranean miniature donkeys and a whole host of wildlife in the farm's ancient woodland, Matt shows us how the power and beauty of the countryside can bring joy to us all. Following the ever-changing seasons of the year, we see woodland animals emerge after a long winter of hibernation and lambs begin to gambol in April. We hear the dawn chorus in the height of summer and see the preparations unfold for the harsh and wild winter months. Peppered with hand drawn sketches, unforgettable moments from Matt's TV career and stories of a landscape you'll fall in love with - from its sun-soaked pastures to 6ft snow drifts - Matt reveals how the outdoors has made him who he is today.

For Yvette Verner, there is nothing to compare with the unspoiled beauty of an ancient meadow on a hot summeris day. Here she shares her passion for English meadows with gentle humour and wonderful lyrical prose, drawing you into the spirit of these special places, and showing you what flora and fauna to look out for. Through evocative descriptions of different types of meadow and the activities surrounding them, English Meadows gives a detailed picture of country ways of life going back to Medieval times, including: farming, buildings, tools, crafts, traditions, wildlife and a list of national meadow reserves. Drawing on personal experience of managing her own meadow, the author discusses the importance of meadows to wildlife today, and the vital nature of the conservation work that is carried out in preserving them.

*A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year 2021* *Longlisted for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History* 'Preposterously entertaining' Observer 'Brilliant' Daily Telegraph 'Rollicking' Sunday Times From the bestselling author of The Long Weekend: a wild, sad and sometimes hilarious tour of the English country house after the Second World War, when Swinging London collided with aristocratic values. As the sun set slowly on the British Empire in the years after the Second World War, the nation's stately homes were in crisis. Tottering under the weight of rising taxes and a growing sense that they had no place in twentieth-century Britain, hundreds of ancestral piles were dismantled and demolished. Perhaps even more surprising was the fact that so many of these great houses survived, as dukes and duchesses clung desperately to their ancestral seats and tenants' balls gave way to rock concerts, safari parks and day trippers. From the Rolling Stones rocking Longleat to Christine Keeler rocking Cliveden, Noble Ambitions takes us on a lively tour of these crumbling halls of power, as a rakish, raffish, aristocratic Swinging London collided with traditional rural values. Capturing the spirit of the age, Adrian Tinniswood proves that the country house is not only an iconic symbol, but a lens through which to understand the shifting fortunes of Britain in an era of monumental social change. Lavishly illustrated in full colour, with over 50 photographs.

Adrian Bell was farming and writing during a period when the English countryside underwent its most significant transformation for hundreds of years. His work, spanning sixty years from 1920 to 1980, not only documents this agricultural revolution, but also warns of the effects it will have both for the environment and for society. As these consequences dominate the English countryside today, Bell's views have relevance and importance to its future management. At the Field's Edge appraises Bell's prescient but still timely observations about the ecology, economy and culture of the British countryside, and introduces his beautifully crafted prose to a new generation of readers. Though he has been largely neglected until now, Bell's voice is one we should listen to, not least because he is one of our greatest writers about farming and rural life. If we pause at the field's edge with him for a moment, we get a lesson not only in aesthetic appreciation, but also a message about what is disappearing from the countryside.

*WATERSTONES WELSH BOOK OF THE MONTH* My Family and Other Animals meets The Secret Life of Cows: this rediscovered gem tells the charming tale of how a baby llama transformed a Welsh farming family forever. Things llamas like: Snaffling cherry brandy, Easter eggs, and the Radio Times. Curling up in 'tea-cosy' position by the fire. Orbiting, helicoptering, and oompahing. Locking victims in the lavatory. Things llamas dislike: Being adopted mother to an orphaned lamb. Invitations to star on Blue Peter. Snowdonia's rainfall. The dark. Ruth Ruck's family live on a Welsh mountain farm, no strangers to cow pats on the carpet and nesting hens in the larder. When dark days strike, they embark on a farming experiment to cheer them all up - but raising a baby llama proves more of an adventure than expected . Reissued with a new foreword by John Lewis-Stempel, Along Came a Llama is a delightful 1970s farming classic: a charming, witty potrait of country life that will warm the hearts of animal lovers everywhere. 'Full of soul ... One departs this book a convinced llama-lover ... It is a guide to the future. To a good life.' John Lewis-Stempel