Readers of his many books and his Times nature columns will know how easily Lewis-Stempel's writing marries the lyrical with the descriptive. The baker does his rounds in his battered little white van with a hundred warm baguettes in the back, while a cat picks its way past a Romanesque church, the sound of bells skipping across miles of rolling, glorious countryside. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. He is the only person to have won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing twice, with Meadowland and Where Poppies Blow . For younger bookworms – and nostalgic older ones too – there’s the Slightly Foxed Cubs series, in which we’ve reissued a number of classic nature and historical novels.

Although it began as a practical enterprise, it quickly became an affair of the heart: of learning to bite the end off the morning baguette; taking two hours for lunch; in short, living the good life - or as the French say, La Vie . He plants his toes in the French earth and turns his lyrical gaze on the land, the people, the deep community spirit .This amount includes seller specified domestic postage charges as well as applicable international postage, dispatch, and other fees. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. The Charente: roofs of red terracotta tiles, bleached-white walls, windows shuttered against the blaring sun. Although it began as a practical enterprise, it quickly became an affair of the heart: of learning to bite the end off the morning baguette; taking two hours for lunch; in short, living the good life - or as the French say, La Vie. John Lewis-Stempel's story of a year on his smallholding in the Charente is warm and vivid and beautiful .

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Good detail on the wildlife, farming and village life here in Charente but John's aim to live as a rural peasant is not supported by 100s of euros spent on exotic lillies, rare sheep and automatic oil pressing machines etc. There are so many things I enjoyed about this book which provided a glorious armchair excursion to rural life in France. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). Over that first year, John falls in love with the French countryside and living the good life – or as the French say, La Vie.Over that first year, Lewis-Stempel fell in love with the French countryside, from the wild boar that trot past the kitchen window to the glow-worms and citronella candles that flicker in the evening garden. After calming the terrified animal, Lewis-Stempel leads him back to his field where the cause of the alarm is revealed: a fire salamander, basking in the sunshine. Slightly Foxed brings back forgotten voices through its Slightly Foxed and Plain Foxed Editions, a series of beautifully produced little pocket hardback reissues of classic memoirs, all of them absorbing and highly individual. He plants his toes in the French earth and turns his lyrical gaze on the land, the people, the deep community spirit. John Lewis-Stempel sets off from the UK to the rural far west of France - la France profonde - where he and his wife settle to a farming life in a draughty house with a small menagerie of pets and farm animals and a few acres of vineyards.

John Lewis-Stempel's story of a year on his smallholding in the Charente is warm and vivid and beautiful. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The book is in effect a year's journal of John and his family moving to rural France, (an area I have visited as I have friends who live an hour away from this place). In la France profonde the signs are more exotic, as John Lewis-Stempel discovers one February morning when his horse crashes through an electrified fence and bolts into a walnut orchard. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item.But as three species of lizard emerged from hibernation to join the party, he realises that’s how you know winter has passed in Charente-Maritime. The Hogarth Press where I’m working, is in the heart of the literary world, with authors coming in all the time. Even if it doesn't make you want to move to France, you'll still wish you could open your window at night and hear that nightingale singing to you. Mrs Woolf, wife of the manager, is a very celebrated author and, in her own way, more important than Galsworthy. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.