Judith Allnatt thoroughly immerses us in the world of Patty, wife of the Northamptonshire poet John Clare, in this moving novel. The story begins with Patty greeting John on his return from an asylum, only to find that he believes she's his childhood sweetheart, Mary. Patty must keep the family going, despite rural poverty, the risks of poaching and the enclosure of land, and her husband's increasing delusions. Offsetting the grimness of this we go back to earlier scenes, when the pair first met and fell in love. The novel is very well written with a wealth of detail about rural life, agriculture, domestic matters, the seasons and the beauties and hardships of the countryside. Patty is an engaging character – having to swallow her own doubts and disappointments in the pressing need to keep the family together. You will learn a lot about the life of John Clare from this novel and will probably want to seek out, or return to, his poetry.
The Poet's Wife - 'Affecting and beautifully written' - The Times
A fascinating, compelling book about the wife of John Clare, and the bewildering effects of her husband's madness. Clare Morrall, Booker shortlisted author.
It is 1841. Patty is married to John Clare: peasant poet, genius and madman.Travelling home one day, Patty finds her husband sitting, footsore, at the sideof the road, having absconded from a lunatic asylum over eighty miles away.She is devastated to discover that he has not returned home to find her, but tosearch for his childhood sweetheart, Mary Joyce, to whom he believes he is married.What…
Set mainly in rural Virginia, this is an ingenious updating and retelling of David Copperfield. Kingsolver follows the fortunes of a bright boy born into poverty and the wrong side of luck; like Dickens’ David he’s passed from one home to another, via a range of guardians and employers. Throughout his varied experiences of harshness and kindness, Demon forms lasting friendships and discovers his talents, though this compelling depiction of rural poverty and the opioid crisis sees him and others falling into addiction. You don’t need to have read the Dickens novel to find this a moving and memorable story, but if you have you’ll enjoy meeting Kingsolver’s versions of Betsy Trotwood, Uriah Heep, Agnes and others, and predicting events as they unfold. A brilliant novel by the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…
In his previous book "The Lost Rainforests of Britain", Guy Shrubsole has almost single-handedly raised public awareness of the temperate rainforests we have in Britain – often in damp microclimates where a deep gorge creates the right conditions. I went straight on to "The Lie of the Land" (clever title) - an angrier but equally informative book that looks at who owns land in Britain (the wealthiest 1% owns 50% of it), what they do with it, and how they deny access to the rest of us.
Shrubsole is outraged about the (mis)management of huge areas of moorland for grouse shooting, which includes practices such as burning moorland and the illegal slaughter of birds of prey, foxes and anything classed as 'vermin' which might reduce grouse numbers - all this subsidised by taxpayers. The mass release of pheasants each year, again in the interests of the shooting minority, receives equal condemnation - in what other circumstance would the widespread release of a non-native species into the countryside be considered acceptable, at a time when bird flu is rife and we're all aware of the risks of another pandemic? As recent parliamentary debates have shown, it's down to the lobbying power of those with vested interests in shooting estates.
More optimistically, Shrubsole looks at instances of communal purchase of land for the benefit of all and for nature restoration. This book was a worth winner of the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing in 2025.
WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION 2025
A WATERSTONES AND GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2024
'Both dynamite and medicine' AMY-JANE BEER
'Timely and rousing'
THE TIMES
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The lie of the land: that Britain's landowners care for the countryside.
Our landowning elite are paid billions of taxpayer pounds to be good stewards. But these same landowners have carelessly trampled over our best-loved landscapes, leaving the rivers polluted, fenlands drained, and moorlands burned.
Guy Shrubsole has travelled across Britain to expose the lie and meet the communities fighting back to restore our lost landscapes. This is a bold, shared vision…
"How can I truthfully tell you I'm sorry, when the worst thing I ever did has turned out to be the best?"
Bridget feels compromised. By marrying Anthony Harper and moving to Wildings, his family home for three generations, she's abandoned her urban roots for rural affluence and comfort she hasn't earned. As Anthony becomes increasingly difficult and their marriage founders, she immerses herself in her new career as gardener and designer. Conscience urges her to leave him; but with her identity and status so closely bound to the garden she knows intimately, how can she? Soon circumstances mean that a split with Anthony is at first essential, then impossible ...
When Meg, a young stonemason, rents a workshop at Wildings, she wants only to be independent and alone. In the exacting craft of cutting letters in stone she finds meaning and purpose, her one true thing. But in spite of her resolve to avoid emotional attachments, she's drawn into intense relationships: with Bridget and with Adam, another artist-in-residence whose confident manner and bold abstract paintings mask deep inner conflict. She finds herself caught between competing claims of loyalty, trust and desire.
A generation on, Jane, the youngest Harper daughter, is left aimless and adrift when Anthony dies suddenly, with the surprise in his Will that he had another son, unknown to the family. Now Wildings must be sold. Everything is in turmoil - work, home, her on-off relationship with Tom. Who is the stranger who's to inherit a third of the estate? Where will she go, and how will she face the future alone? Aware that Meg and her mother each had an absorbing focus for their energy and passion, she is unsure where to find her own - but without it, what's the purpose of her life?
Now far from Wildings, but bound by a promise to support Jane, Meg is unable to be honest about the secrets she knows from both parents - or thinks she knows. Having thought of herself as the observer who saw everything, she's forced to realise how much she failed to see - and the cost to herself and to those she loves.
When the ground shifts, where is one true thing to be found?
