My top ten favourite farming books - judged as books not for usefulness - and only my opinion
Here goes...
Here goes...
Farmer’s Glory - A G Street
Fades as it progresses but lovely anyway
Fades as it progresses but lovely anyway
I Bought a Mountain - D Firbank
Great story and takes you away to that time and place in North Wales
Great story and takes you away to that time and place in North Wales
Moortown Diary and Collected Letters of Ted Hughes
Some lovely stuff in there, and he does blood and guts, and death and crows as well as anyone
Some lovely stuff in there, and he does blood and guts, and death and crows as well as anyone
And Quiet Flows the Don - M Sholokhov
I love this book and don’t care remotely what his politics were - full of awesome writing about goals being born and horses grazing etc
I love this book and don’t care remotely what his politics were - full of awesome writing about goals being born and horses grazing etc
The River - by Jane Clarke
Beautiful contemporary poet with precious little moments from her family’s farming life
Beautiful contemporary poet with precious little moments from her family’s farming life
A Shepherd’s Life - W H Hudson
If you don’t love hearing Caleb Bawcombe tell his shepherding stories then I give up
If you don’t love hearing Caleb Bawcombe tell his shepherding stories then I give up
The Story of a Norfolk Farm - Henry Williamson
Bonkers and sad sub plot about his affection for the British Union of Fascists - but still an interesting book about being a crap farmer
Bonkers and sad sub plot about his affection for the British Union of Fascists - but still an interesting book about being a crap farmer
Running for the Hills - Horatio Clare
A really good evocation of his childhood on the family farm
A really good evocation of his childhood on the family farm
Collected Poems - Seamis Heaney
Perhaps never bettered for writing about people working, be it his mum peeling potatoes or his dad ploughing with a horse
Perhaps never bettered for writing about people working, be it his mum peeling potatoes or his dad ploughing with a horse
The World Ending Fire - Wendell Berry
Gorgeous collection of essays that I helped in a little way to get published in UK - some of the best farming writing ever
Gorgeous collection of essays that I helped in a little way to get published in UK - some of the best farming writing ever
The Farm - Richard Benson
I loved this book, a deeply affectionate telling of his coming home to witness the end of his parent’s farming life
I loved this book, a deeply affectionate telling of his coming home to witness the end of his parent’s farming life
The Georgics - Virgil
A strange little book that is partly a farming manual from 2000 years ago, and partly about what life and society should be about
A strange little book that is partly a farming manual from 2000 years ago, and partly about what life and society should be about
The Collected Poems - John Clare
One of my heroes - very intimate stuff about his childhood and the nature of the farmland he knew as a child
One of my heroes - very intimate stuff about his childhood and the nature of the farmland he knew as a child
Thats 13 not 10... and it seems to be almost all men - which has got to be wrong
Anyway those are the ones I like
Anyway those are the ones I like
And I missed God... Tolstoy is the boss, hands down by a mile
Basically any of his fables or any rural scenes - peerless
Basically any of his fables or any rural scenes - peerless
And I deeply love Beatrix Potter’s letters - full of the day to day life of her farm
And loved the return to the farm bits of @amy_may The Outrun
I liked the sound of her dad and hope he is doing well
I liked the sound of her dad and hope he is doing well
That could be misinterpreted that I didn’t like the rest of the book
I did - I think she’s great and can’t wait for her next book
I did - I think she’s great and can’t wait for her next book
