Description

A Telegraph Summer Read

‘A priceless portrait of one of the least understood and frequently most vilified of people: farmers. It should really be read by all in this country who buys food – i.e. everyone.’ Daily Mail

‘Highly researched and deeply thoughtful … Bathurst peers under the bonnet of these lives and reveals things that rarely make it into print.’ James Rebanks, The Times

‘A fine achievement: describing the indescribable’ Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows

For many of us, Britain is countryside – drystone walls, stiles, sheep on a distant hillside. But farmers themselves often remain a mystery: familiar but unpredictable, a secretive industry still visible from space. Who are these people who shape our countryside and put food on our tables? And what does it take to pull a life out of earth?

From fruit farmers to fallen stock operators, from grassy uplands to polytunnels, Bella Bathurst journeys through Britain to talk to those on the far side of the fence. As farmers find themselves torn between time-honoured methods and modern appetites, these shocking, raw, wise and funny accounts will open out a way of life now changing beyond recognition.

Publisher Review

A long overdue account of the true nature of farming - written from the ground up. Bella Bathurst really gets under the skin of what it means to farm the land in the 21st century, at a time of unprecedented change. -- Stephen Moss, naturalist and author of Skylarks with Rosie Exactly the book I've been longing to read about farming. A proper behind-the-scenes look, fascinating, insightful, compassionate. -- Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley and The Light of Stubborn Things Praise for Bella Bathurst's previous titles: Fascinating ... Bathurst is a restless, curious writer * Guardian * [Bathurst] is wry, perceptive, laconic, occasionally downright funny and uncannily skilled at recreating atmosphere...a pleasure to read. * Daily Telegraph * She has a dazzling gift for descriptive writing. * Independent * A fine achievement: describing the indescribable -- Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows