Another beautiful, revelatory country diary from one of the best nature writers in Britain. 'If you've never read Mark Cocker, then you must. His style is sharp, selfless, and wonderfully evocative, his knowledge deep and wide-ranging but lightly borne, his curiosity joyful and infectious.' Mail On Sunday, Books of the Year For seventeen years, as part of his daily writerly routine, the author and naturalist Mark Cocker has taken a two-mile walk down to the river from his cottage on the edge of the Norfolk Broads National Park. Over the course of those 10,000 daily paces he has learnt the art of patience to observe a butterfly, a bird, flower, bee, deer, otter or fly and to take pleasure in all the other inhabitants of his parish, no matter how seemingly insignificant. In turn these encounters have then been converted into literary epiphanies that are now a widely celebrated part of his work. In A Claxton Diary he has gathered some of the finest short essays that he has ever written on wildlife. They range over almost everything he can see, touch or smell, from the minute to the cosmic, from a strange micromoth called yellow-barred longhorn to that fiercest of winter storms the so-called 'Beast from the East'. From the marvellous to the macabre, Cocker tries to capture nature without flinching and in its entirety. In so doing he provides us with a vision of an English country parish that for intimacy and precise detail is comparable with Gilbert White's diary on Selbourne. Above all he reminds us that we are all just members of one miraculous family, fashioned from sunlight and the dust from old stars.

Nestled within the heart of the county, sparsely and largely untouched by the pressures of the modern age, the Kent Downs are home to some of the most enchanting countryside in southern England. This book unravels the history of the area's settlement and colonisation, the inspiration it has given to poets, artists and authors, and the legacy of its rich and varied natural treasures; the rare and the commonplace; the peculiar and unique, the mysterious and the haunting. Having spent most of his life living and working in the countryside of the Kent Downs, Dan Tuson offers an intimate and inspiring exploration of this unique landscape. He is a regular contributor of articles and photographs to The Orchid magazine of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Beauty organisation, many of which have been included within the book and illustrated with the beautiful artwork of fellow contributors to The Orchid, Angel Design. Richly illustrated with over 100 stunning photographs in colour and monochrome, the book is a tribute to the many who have found solace and inspiration in the Kent Downs and will appeal to all those who visit, work or live in this cherished part of the county of Kent.

Charismatic David Kennard lives a life most people can only dream about. Farming on a spectacularly beautiful part of the Devon coast he has an almost telepathic bond with nature and with his working sheepdogs. His is a life filled with daily challenges, from the battles with wild Atlantic weather to the dramas of clifftop rescue, but it is also a life full of the richness of rebirth, and the Herriotesque delight in a way of life that has remained almost untouched by the modern world. Part diary, part homage to the countryside and the canine family that is so much a part of his life, David Kennard's extraordinary book is designed to touch the hearts and minds of city and country dwellers alike.

Author Jamie Blackett arrives home from the Army to take over a small family estate on the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway and finds a rapidly changing countryside. In a humorous and occasionally-moving tale, he describes how he grapples with the intricacies of farming, conservation and estate management and tells the story of founding a pack of foxhounds and a herd of pedigree beef cattle. Part childhood memoir, part biopic of rural life, readers are transported to a remote and beautiful part of Scotland and acquainted with its wildlife, its people and its customs. One minute he is unblocking his septic tank, and the next he is watching Glenn Close film a sex scene in his bedroom. Set over the first two decades of the 21st century, through the Scottish independence referendum, Brexit and the hunting ban, the result is an enlightened review of the challenges threatening a vulnerable way of life and an emerging rural philosophy about the directions Scotland, farming and the countryside might take in the brave new world of Brexit.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A fascinating and hilarious glimpse into Paul's life at home in the country with his animals Paul O'Grady's Country Life for the first time gives a glimpse into the home life of one of Britain's best loved stars, alongside the animals he adores. Sometimes rural idyll, sometimes hell on earth, Paul's life in rural Kent has been shared over the years with some very vocal pigs, a mad cow, various rescued barn owls, the world's most sadistic geese and Christine the psychotic sheep - among many other animal waifs and strays. And of course Paul tells the stories of the dogs in his life - including the tiny chihuahua/Jack Russell cross with Napoleonic ambitions, Eddie, Miss Olga, Bullseye, Louis, Boycie and, of course, Buster, the greatest canine star since Lassie. In addition, Paul shares some of his favourite recipes, explores country lore and superstitions, and extols the benefits of growing your own vegetables, herbs and fruit. This is a warts-and-all account of country living, as far removed from the bright lights of celebrity as you could ever imagine. The trials and tribulations Paul experienced on moving to deepest darkest Kent as a dyed-in-the-wool city dweller are every bit as hilarious and eventful as you would think. He had a lot of new skills to learn, and fast: everything from how to churn your own butter and how to birth a lamb to the best way to lure a cow out of your kitchen while naked from the waist down. Brilliantly funny and full of classic stories, Paul O'Grady's Country Life is your armchair guide to the wonders and horrors of rural existence.

Roy Bedichek spent most of his life working in the educational field in Texas, but his main interest was always the great outdoors. His first book, Adventures with a Texas Naturalist, was published when he was almost seventy, and his second, Karankaway Country, appeared three years later. Both were the result of a lifetime of exploring a beloved land, of searching observation, of discussion, debate, wide reading, and reflection. Long out of print, Karankaway Country is now available in a handsome second edition with a new Foreword by W. W. Newcomb, Jr.

Karankaway Country focuses on the natural history of a strip of coastal prairie lying roughly between Corpus Christi and Galveston and once inhabited by the poorly known and much maligned Karankawa Indians. It serves as home base for an exposition of Bedichek's philosophy, providing a convenient local setting for richly tailored essays on wildlife, soil, human skin, and a variety of other topics suggested by a wide-ranging intellect. Bedichek's philosophy, if it can be reduced to a few words, is essentially that humans must learn to live on peaceful and conciliatory terms with our natural environment.

Take a trip down memory lane with the memoir from national TV treasure John Craven, as he recounts both the highs and lows of one of the longest entertaining careers in history, and the people and animals that have helped to shape it. 'Magical memoirs. A BBC legend. A broadcasting icon. The best bits from cub reporter to Countryfile' Daily Mail He began by reading the front page of the evening newspaper in the kitchen to his mother and aunt. Since then, he's spoken to the nation on the BBC almost every week for more than half a century and is one of the most-beloved broadcasters of our time. Presenter of treasured programmes Newsround, Countryfile and Swap Shop, John brought us the headlines and breaking news of our childhood and later helped us discover the magic and wonder of the British countryside. Now, in his first ever autobiography, he recounts a life in news, his childhood, the great impact that the absence of his father - held prisoner for three and a half years while fighting for his country - had on him. He writes too about the people, the major events - and, of course, the animals - that have shaped his life. This is John Craven. And this is the story behind the man so many of us grew up watching on our television screens. 'A cracking read' Chris Evans

The Smell of Summer Grass is the story of the years spent in finding and building a personal idyll, sometimes a dream, sometimes a nightmare, by writer Adam Nicolson and his wife, cook and gardener, Sarah Raven. Without knowing one end of a hay baler from the other, Adam Nicolson and Sarah Raven, fed up with London and with life, escaped with his family to a run-down farm in the Sussex Weald. Looking for Arcadia, they found a mixture of intense beauty and profound chaos. Over three years they struggled with dock leaves, spring flowers, bloody-minded sheep and neighbours before eventually arriving at some kind of equilibrium. Funny, poetic, ironic and wise, 'The Smell of Summer Grass' is based partly on the long out of print 'Perch Hill'. It traces the growing intimacy between man and his chosen place, his love affair with it and his frustrations with its intractable realities. As an attempt to live out the pastoral vision, it makes one heartfelt plea: we should never abandon our dreams.

**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST BOOKS OF 2018** Join renowned naturalist Peter Marren on an exciting quest to see every species of wild plant native to Britain. The mysterious Ghost Orchid blooms in near darkness among rotting leaves on the forest floor. It blends into the background to the point of invisibility, yet glows, pale and ghostly. The ultimate grail of flower hunters, it has been spotted only once in the past twenty-five years. Its few flowers have a deathly pallor and are said to smell of over-ripe bananas. Peter Marren has been a devoted flower finder all his life. While the Ghost Orchid offers the toughest challenge of any wild plant, there were fifty more British species Peter had yet to see, having ticked off the first 1,400 rummaging in hedges, slipping down gullies and peering in peat bogs. But he set himself the goal of finding the remaining fifty in a single summer. As it turned out, the wettest summer in years. This expert and emotional journey takes Peter the length and the breadth of the British Isles, from the dripping ancient woods of the New Forest to the storm-lashed cliffs of Sutherland. He paddles in lakes, clambers up cliffs in mist and rain, and walks several hundred miles, but does he manage to find them all? Partly about plants, partly autobiography, Chasing the Ghost is also a reminder that to engage with wild flowers, all we need to do is look around us and enjoy what we see. Praise for Chasing the Ghost: 'Peter Marren is the unsung hero of Britain's nature writers' Stephen Moss, author of Dynasties 'Jolly, quixotic and ends with real poignancy' Guardian 'A poignant reminder to us all to engage with the wild flowers that grow around us' i Newspaper

EMMA GRAY'S NEW BOOK 'MY FARMING LIFE' ('A HEARTWARMING TALE OF LIFE ON THE LAND' Alan Titchmarsh) IS OUT NOW What happens when you swap 'I do' for pastures new? When twenty-three-year-old shepherdess Emma Gray breaks off her engagement, the chance to take over an isolated Northumberland farm seems just the fresh start she needs. But while the beautiful scenery certainly offers plenty of scope for contemplation, a night out with an eligible bachelor soon seems more remote than the farm itself. And once you add fugitive sheep and freak blizzards into the mix, Emma's dreams of a happy future at Fallowlees Farm quickly begin to fade. Throughout the long nights of lambing, the highs and lows of the local sheepdog trials and the day-to-day chores of maintaining a large, ramshackle farm, Emma's collies are her most loyal companions. With Bill, Fly, Roy and Alfie by her side, she'll never really be alone. Emma's remarkable first year at Fallowlees - the triumphs, the disasters, the heartbreak and the glimmer of romance on the horizon - is an inspiration for anyone who has ever dreamt of changing their life and starting all over again. ____________________________________________________________ Readers love ONE GIRL AND HER DOGS: 'This is an amazing book, difficult to put down. A must for all thinking of living of the land, or looking to be inspired by a hard working courageous young woman' 'What a little gem of a book, I loved it. Emma has given us a little taste of her life in the remote Fallowlees Farm in Northumberland, her knowledge of lambing is just astonishing to me and her beautiful dogs are amazing, I must admit to shedding a tear now and then, but there was plenty to chuckle at too' 'An admirable book' 'Very entertaining and readable. A brave girl who made the decision to become a sheep farmer and farm in a lovely and lonely spot' 'This story is written in such a way that you feel you are actually on the farm and going through the trials too. Wonderful empathy with her dogs and an excellent storyteller'

This beloved American memoir is about a farm and its people, recollections of a boyhood in Wisconsin's Driftless region. Ben Logan grew up on Seldom Seen Farm with his three brothers, father, mother, and hired hand Lyle. The boys discussed and argued and joked over the events around their farm, marked the seasons by the demands of the land, and tested each other and themselves.

Inspiration and advice about finding a dream home in the countryside from Jules Hudson, presenter of the BBC's Escape to the Country.

Escape to the Country has run on daytime BBC1 since 2002 and is now in its eighteenth season. Each week it helps urban buyers find their dream home in rural Britain by showing them specially selected properties. Along the way the program tells us about the landscape and history of the area they are in. The program is on every weekday and has been sold to thirty countries including Australia, Canada, and the USA. This is an inspirational and practical book to appeal to armchair dreamers and lovers of property porn as well as those really thinking of making the move.

Regional sections look at the typical kinds of homes found in each place, along with local landscapes and landmarks. Features sprinkled throughout the book cover everything from dealing with listed building consent and public footpaths to how grow your own food. Jules is well placed to talk about conservation and renovation issues too, having trained as an archaeologist and renovated his own historic house.

'Two of the UK's most exciting nature writers. A thoughtful adventure in learning simple skills that help connect people to nature.' Guardian Skimming Stones and Other Ways of Being in the Wild is a book of simple skills that can help us to interact with nature, achieve a deeper connection with it and even step inside another dimension. Rob Cowen and Leo Critchley teach us, for example, making and flying a kite, making an elder whistle, damming a stream and building a den - and at the same time teach us about life. Their techniques are intended to be not only of practical value but also techniques for meditation. They help us to live in the moment, recover ancient insights and rhythms and encourage nature to reveal to us her secrets and treasures. They write that '...there are forces deep in everyone's subconscious that find a pure expression in the simplest of activities. This book explains why we should be taking the time to do them. It is born out of a wish to share our passion for our landscape and the contemplative, reflective pleasures and joys that were well-known to our grandparents, but which are in danger of being lost and forgotten. They will help us get back to a place where we all belong'. Skimming Stones was awarded the Robert Deakin Grant from the Authors' Foundation, by the Society of Authors. 'Essential reading.' Daily Express 'At its simplest their book gives advice on connecting with nature through twelve activities... but Skimming Stones delves deeper. Each section draws the reader lyrically into deeper philosophical waters... I was simply carried along by the authors' sense of awe, and their quiet belief that our lives can be enriched through a deeper connection with nature.' 4* BBC Wildlife Skimming stones teaches you how to get back to nature and: *Skim a stone *Find a fossil *Forage for food *Make a kite *Carve an elder whistle *Track an animal *Build a den *Light a fire *Build an igloo *Catch a fish *Dam a stream *Walk in the wild

A life-affirming story of family and personal self-discovery When George, the eldest son of Matthew Silverman, announces he won't follow his father's footsteps as editor of the family-owned local newspaper, the family finds itself on a course for change. The newspaper has been going for nearly 100 years. With younger brother Alexander and sisters Loraine and Alison growing up fast too, and gradual progress in the world around them, can Matthew do what's best for them all? This beautifully observed story of a loving family navigating generational change retains a timeless appeal today. Praise for Victor Canning: 'His gift of story-telling is obviously innate. Rarely does one come on so satisfying an amalgam of plot, characterisation and good writing.' Punch 'Quite delightful ... with an atmosphere of quiet contentment and humour that cannot fail to charm.' Daily Telegraph 'A swift-moving novel, joyous, happy and incurably optimistic.' Evening Standard 'There is such a gentle humour in the book.' Daily Sketch 'What counts for most in the story ... is his mounting pleasure in vagabondage and the English scene.' The Times 'A paean to the beauties of the English countryside and the lovable oddities of the English character.' New York Times

'One woman's gloriously lyrical account of life and love as a shepherdess' Mail on Sunday 'Janet White's unfailingly enjoyable book . . . taps into a widespread feeling that we have become cut off from the natural world' TLS 'A book to share or even fight over if necessary' Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows 'An immensely enjoyable and heartfelt book: it makes you want to run for the hills' The Lady With an introduction by Colin Thubron As a child in wartime England, Janet White decided that she wanted to live somewhere wild and supremely beautiful, to inhabit and work the landscape. She imagined searching the whole world for a place, high and remote as a sheep stell, quiet as a monastery, challenging and virginal, untouched and unknown. Turning her back on convention, Janet's desire to carve out her own pastoral Eden has taken her from the Cheviot Hills to Sussex and Somerset, via the savage beauty of rural New Zealand. The Sheep Stell tells the tale of a woman before her time; a woman with incredible courage and determination, truly devoted to the land and its creatures. Evocative, unaffected and profound, it is a lost classic. 'An extraordinary memoir . . . The Sheep Stell is pure joy, one of the most moving books I've read in a long time' Philip Marsden, author of Rising Ground 'This is a strange and lovely book, and quiet as it is, it makes you gasp at the profoundly lived quality of the life it so modestly describes' Jenny Diski 'A hymn to country solitude, lyrical, unpretentious and deeply felt' Colin Thubron

In this warm, lively account of living on and by the sea, Sarah Drummond writes of life as an apprentice fisherwoman. Through her firsthand experience with small-scale commercial fishing in the Great Southern, Drummond documents a way of life--fishing--that is slowly dying as waters become politicized and fished out. She writes of fishing, of feuds, and of all the fish that got away. "Salt Story" is a tribute to sea-dogs, fisherwomen, oystermen, and storytellers everywhere.

What do you do when there are goldfish in the horse's water tank, a baby magpie in the bedroom, a cow in the kitchen and a half-dozen small dogs rolling in the dirt to get rid of the smell of skunk? It's all in a day's work on Gayle Bunney's farm near Bonnyville, Alberta. Bunney's hilarious and heartwarming stories are filled with down-to-earth observations on country life and the animals she loves. There's Old Pete, the cow that uses the kitchen sink as a water trough; Tramp, the fearless little dog who takes on coyotes and muskrats and climbs on a roof in pursuit of a cat; and Studley, the diminutive but raging black stallion. From encounters with eccentric neighbours and a curious herd of buffalo to the perils of working in a country bar and Internet dating, cowgirl style, Bunney conveys the frustrations and joys of rural Alberta life with wit and compassion.

The daughter and granddaughter of Wyoming ranchers, Teresa Jordan gives us a lyrical and superbly evocative book that is at once a family chronicle and a eulogy for the land her people helped shape and in time were forced to leave. Author readings.

Oxbow says: For many years hedges have been the most common field boundary in rural Britain, providing a stock-proof barrier, a field boundary and a haven for wildlife. Despite this, they are rarely studied in any detail in landscape archaeology. The authors of Hedgerow History rightly argue that hedges, as an essential feature of the landscape, their origins and development, are as worthy of study as any other part of the landscape. Their book focuses on the species content and diversity of hedges, how these came about and how they changed over time. The introduction provides the background to hedges in Britain, the development of field boundaries, changes in fields and farming, especially the impact of enclosure, hedgerow management, and methods of dating hedges. In an attempt to evaluate the pioneering work of Hooper and Pollard in the 1960s and 1970s, and gain insights into the diversity of hedges and the possible human and animal reasons for it, Barnes and Williamson carried out a detailed survey of hedgerows in Norfolk. Finding 61 shrub species among the Norfolk hedgerows, they attempt to tie this data in with evidence on geology, soils, climate, woodland, enclosure, farming practices and historical factors, as an indicator of the processes of continuity and change that have taken place in the wider landscape.

Sallyann J. Murphey and her husband did what a lot of us have dreamt of but never quite built up the courage to do. In 1990, Murphey, who was a successful BBC producer, and her husband, Greg, a commercial photographer, left their high stress, hectic life in Chicago and moved to a dilapidated 40-plus-acre farm in Brown County, Indiana, hoping to raise their daughter in a more natural and less stressful environment. In Bean Blossom Dreams, Murphey warmly and humorously details life on the family's farm. Though Brown County might not offer the idyllic country life they were expecting, Sallyann and Greg have realized through trial and error, laughter and tears, that they made the right decision to relocate. A delightful fish-out-of-water story

In this classic of American literature, Thoreau gives an account of his two years experience of the 'simple life' in the woods, telling how he sought and found material and spiritual sustenance in the solitude of the cabin which he built for himself on the shore of Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts.

Seeking a closer connection with nature than the manicured lawns of suburbia, naturalist Fred Gehlbach and his family built a house on the edge of a wooded ravine in Central Texas in the mid-1960s. On daily walks over the hills, creek hollows, and fields of the ravine, Gehlbach has observed the cycles of weather and seasons, the annual migrations of birds, and the life cycles of animals and plants that also live in the ravine.

In this book, Gehlbach draws on thirty-five years of journal entries to present a composite, day-by-day almanac of the life cycles of this semiwild natural island in the midst of urban Texas. Recording such events as the hatching of Eastern screech owl chicks, the emergence of June bugs, and the first freeze of November, he reminds us of nature's daily, monthly, and annual cycles, from which humans are becoming ever more detached in our unnatural urban environments. The long span of the almanac also allows Gehlbach to track how local and even global developments have affected the ravine, from scars left by sewer construction to an increase in frost-free days probably linked to global warming.

This long-term record of natural cycles provides one of only two such baseline data sets for North America. At the same time, the book is an eloquent account of one keen observer's daily interactions with his wild and human neighbors and of the lessons in connectedness and the "play of life" that they teach.