Chasing memories of the losses of his brother and father, the author, a young newspaper director, and his Australian wife visit the Cotswolds. On a whim they buy a cottage and Ian resigns. They slowly get to know Norman, their inscrutable and apparently terrifying neighbour; Geoff, the ebullient landlord of their eclectic local - last bastion against the encroaching gastropub - and Tom, an ex-gamekeeper, who lets Ian see something of a hidden rural culture. The delightful aspects of village life and an ever-changing landscape is evocatively captured; but it is from working with Norman on his small chaotic farm that they learn about the loss of the countryside to industrial farming and of no-longer affordable housing to the dreaded 'white settlers'. And it is shadows of the past and a seemingly segregated social world around them that begin to cast doubts on whether this is the place for them. This is a gentle lesson in taking time to confront our losses, memories and prejudices to discover a revitalised life in our own country.
A timeless, moving and uplifting tale of merriment and visceral beauty, A Place in My Country reads more like a novel and challenges for the better how we think of the English countryside.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"affecting and inspiring memoir...His elegiac account of relearning how to be an Englishman should be required reading for anyone who claims to know or love this country" -- Melissa Katsoulis THE FINANCIAL TIMES "Funny, touching and ultimately very moving, this is a beautiful, unsentimental account of a personal loss that is reflected in the rapidly changing texture of life in rural England." -- Clover Stroud THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH "One of "The Top Ten Summer Holiday Books You Must Own - On the verge of a nervous breakdown, former marketing boss Walthew bought a place in the country to love out his rural dream. Naturally, it wasnt quite as simple as that" THE MAIL ON SUNDAY "A riveting read" -- Leslie Geddes-Brown COUNTRY LIFE "The book is a fascinating snapshot. All of life is here - birth, death, struggles with illness, hard work, lots of laughter. It will make you smile gently to yourself, laugh out loud, shed a quiet tear and feel angry at the changes happening in our countryside." NFU COUNTRYSIDE MAGAZINE '"The writing had me close to tears...one of the most rewarding books that I've read for quite a while." THEBOOKBAG.CO.UK "An entertaining memoir of life in Gloucecestershire...A beautifully written book which has something to amuse or enlighten on almost every page." -- Chris Gray OXFORD TIMES "A tale of moving to the country that even those who actually live and work there might enjoy" THE SHOOTING TIMES "Compelling and often deeply moving...Walthew has a genuine gift for bringing both people and places to life and marshals his runaway real life narratives with a novelist's skill." -- Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall 'a revealing and sometimes painful account of life in 21st century English countryside...it is beautifully written and very moving.' -- Fergus Collins COUNTRYFILE
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 216 mm
Breite: 135 mm
Dicke: 28 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-297-85173-8 (9780297851738)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Ian Walthew left school aged eighteen and spent six months walking across Spain, living as a tramp and following in the footsteps of the Cotswold writer Laurie Lee who wrote about his pre-civil war journey in As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. Ian eventually fell into the newspaper industry and ended his media career as worldwide Marketing Director on the executive board of the Paris-based newspaper The International Herald Tribune. After nearly a decade living and working abroad in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris and travelling the world he was thirty-four when he unexpectedly resigned and moved with his Australian wife Hannah to the Cotswolds.
