Will’s World: Rural reading for your Christmas wishlist
© Lee Boswell Photography At the start of this year, I set myself a challenge of reading 20 books in 2025.
It’s part of a wider effort to implement positive daily habits and reduce the time I spend unconsciously absorbing negativity from the likes of social media, and so far, I’m well on target.
In among several about the Second World War (of course), an absolute tearjerker that the present Mrs Evans encouraged me to read after her called The Women, by Kristin Hannah (I was an emotional wreck throughout).
And a re-reading of the much-missed AA Gill’s Pour Me A Life (utter genius), I’ve read a few of the farming and rural variety.
See also: Smart technology helps shorten finishing period on Powys farm
About the author
The youngest of my numerous daughters informs me that Christmas is on the horizon.
So I thought I’d write a few words about the latter sort, just in case you’re looking for a gift for that hard-to-buy-for friend or relative in your life.
Gate keeper
The Irish actor, poet and playwright Seamus O’Rourke’s latest autobiographical offering, Leaning on Gates, had me smiling, laughing and crying throughout – and often all at the same time.
It’s a wonderfully tender recollection of life growing up in the now-vanished world of rural Leitrim in the 1970s and 1980s.
The tone is one of slightly detached observational humour, and the larger-than-life characters are instantly recognisable to those of us born into farming communities.
Anyone who grew up longing to escape and see the world, while also feeling a deep attachment and sense of place, will greatly relate to this often beautifully moving memoir.
If, like me, you enjoy a bit of hedge laying, whether having a go yourself or watching true craftsmen at work, then you have a choice of Words from the Hedge by Richard Negus, or Of Thorn and Briar by Paul Lamb.
We’re living through a golden age of rural and nature writing, and both writers contribute to this with a distinct style and voice that takes you with them on their journeys.
At times I felt like I was right there alongside them both, methodically working away in a hedge bottom, or enjoying a well-earned pint and a joke together after a long day.
The two books are very different, and both go into splendid detail about the peaceful joy and satisfaction of their traditional craft.
However, neither author shies away from the often (sadly) ideological opposed viewpoint of the conservationist and farmer, either, explaining well the challenges that we all face in maintaining and enhancing the environment during the current era of wafer-thin margins and poorly designed government policy.
Ultimately, both are love letters to the British countryside, and anyone who cares about that will be thoroughly delighted with a copy of either.
Country voices
Last, a book that had a big impact on me.
Patrick Galbraith’s Uncommon Ground, details his journeys round the UK to talk to a wide range of fascinating people about the infinitely complex subject of access to the countryside.
I greatly enjoyed the variety of voices, from wildfowlers, gamekeepers, farmers and members of the landed gentry, through to naturists, fanatical believers in unrestricted access, and illegal ravers.
All opinions are presented with scrupulous balance and a wonderfully dry sense of humour.
It left me feeling that both sides of the argument would benefit from listening more, rather than shouting, and perhaps solutions could be found.
So, there you go – any of these books will be far better than socks or a Lynx Africa gift set on Christmas morning.
If any of the authors want that quote for a literary endorsement, get in touch through FW.