Posts Tagged ‘Victorian Farm’

Bestselling books for January 2009 on AbeBooks.co.uk

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Barack Obama continues to be the talk of the town on both sides of the Atlantic and The Reality TV program Victorian Farm edged the long out of print Book of the Farm into the top ten, however its out of print status kept it from creeping any higher in the rankings.

Top 10 bestselling books on AbeBooks.co.uk for January 2009
1. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
2. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
3. The Mass Book for Children by Donna Piscitelli
4. The Road To Memphis by Mildred Taylor
5. Shackleton’s Way by Margot Morrell
6. The Gospel According to Saint Mark by Morna Hooker
7. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
8. Brothers! By Geoff Gorsuch
9. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
10. The Book of the Farm by Henry Stephens

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Victorian Farm: Rediscovering Forgotten Skills

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Fans of the BBC2 reality series “Victorian Farm” will want to get their hands on the tie-in title, Victorian Farm: Rediscovering Forgotten Skills (also known as Tales From the Victorian Farm).

Victorian Farm, a follow-up to the 2005 series Tales From the Green Valley which explored life on a 17th Century British farm,  follows archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn and historian Ruth Goodman as they spend a year on a farm estate in Shropshire 1885-style.

The book includes a broad range of  photographs, the team’s diary entries, authentic recipes and practical craft, cooking and household management projects. There are also extensive features on topics such as new inventions, breeding methods, clothing and food.

The television series has also prompted renewed interest in the book The Book of the Farm by Henry Stephens. Read more about this in Richard’s January 12th blog post.

Oh and did you know that you can actually visit the Victorian Farm? The Acton Scott Historic Working Farm is open to the public April 15 - November 9, 2009.

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Reality TV show revives interest in Book of the Farm

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Victorian Farm
Ever heard of The Book of the Farm by Henry Stephens? Neither had I until I checked out the most popular search terms on AbeBooks.co.uk for last week. It appears BBC 2’s new reality TV series, Victorian Farm, has sparked interest in this forgotten out-of-print farming manual that was originally published in 1844.

This scarce book was the most searched for title on AbeBooks.co.uk after the first episode of Victorian Farm aired on 8th January. I haven’t seen the show but apparently the book was referenced several times. As soon as the credits started rolling, copies began selling and now only a handful of copies remain for sale on AbeBooks.co.uk.

The book details farming practices from ploughing to animal husbandry - including lambing - to growing turnips and hiring workers. The Book of the Farm was first printed in 1844 by William Blackwood and Sons in Edinburgh and London with the first American pressing in 1846 by Greeley & McElrath. The book was reprinted several times until falling out-of-print around 1908 – a period when mechanisation began to impact farming methods. I can imagine that The Book of the Farm was a bestseller in its day.

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