The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland
Author(s): John Lewis-Stempel
This is from the Winner of the Thwaites Wainwright Prize 2015. Traditional ploughland is disappearing. Seven cornfield flowers have become extinct in the last twenty years. Once abundant, the corn bunting and the lapwing are on the Red List. The corncrake is all but extinct in England. And the hare is running for its life. Written in exquisite prose, the Running Hare tells the story of the wild animals and plants that live in and under our ploughland, from the labouring microbes to the patrolling kestrel above the corn, from the linnet pecking at seeds to the seven-spot ladybird that eats the aphids that eat the crop. It recalls an era before open-roofed factories and silent, empty fields, recording the ongoing destruction of the unique, fragile, glorious ploughland that exists just down the village lane. But it is also the story of ploughland through the eyes of man who took on a field and husbanded it in a natural, traditional way, restoring its fertility and wildlife, bringing back the old farmland flowers and animals. John Lewis Stempel demonstrates that it is still possible to create a place where the hare can rest safe.
Product Information
A vivid celebration of English wildlife and our agricultural landscape from the Winner of Thwaite's Wainwright Prize.
"He describes beautifully the changing of the seasons and the habits of animals such as the hares that make their home in his field. The book is a superb piece of nature writing." -- Ian Critchley Sunday Times "That John Lewis-Stempel is one of the best nature writers of his generation is undisputed." Country Life "Englightening and stylish...Readers who enjoyed the author's last book, Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field, will find much in the same vein here: a mix of agricultural history, rural lore, topographical description and childhood memories. I learned a good deal... Lewis-Stempel is a fine stylist, adroitly conjuring scenes in which "medieval mist hangs in the trees" or "frost clenches the ground"..." -- Sara Wheeler Observer "A beautifully observed book, full of poetic descriptions. Brilliant and galvanising." Sunday Express "Fans of Lewis-Stempel's bestselling Meadowland will find here the same easy-reading prose fuelled by daft-as-a-brush enthusiasm and embellished with lyrical flourishes ... the mud-spattered details of a farming life lend The Running Hare a unique realness." Mail on Sunday "A beautiful love letter ... to a wheat field [and] a pleasurable read" BBC Countryfile
John Lewis-Stempel is a writer and farmer. His many previous books include The Wild Life: A Year of Living on Wild Food, England: The Autobiography and the bestselling Six Weeks: The Short and Gallant Life of the British Officer in the First World War. His most recent book, Meadowland, was nominated for Countryfile's Book of the Year 2014 and won the Thwaites Wainwright Prize 2015. He lives on the borders of England and Wales with his wife and two children.
General Fields
- :
- : Transworld Publishers Ltd
- : Doubleday
- : 0.437
- : May 2016
- : 222mm X 138mm
- : United Kingdom
- : April 2016
- : books
Special Fields
- : John Lewis-Stempel
- : Hardback
- : Hardback
- : 508.42
- : 508.42
- : 304
- : 304