The Lost Village: In Search of a Forgotten Rural England - Softcover

Askwith, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753156865 ISBN 13: 9780753156865

Publisher: Isis Large Print Books, 2009

Synopsis

The idea of the unspoilt and unchanging village is one of the most potent in the English imagination. Yet the English village is plainly dying. The unaltered rhythms of village life have all but vanished. But not without a trace...they exist in the voices of men and women for whom the old ways were life-shaping realities. Richard Askwith describes a journey in search of the true country dwellers. He captures the voices of poachers and gamekeepers, farmers and huntsmen, thatchers and blacksmiths, and demonstrates that, while the landscape is more changed than we thought, the past is never so simple as we imagine.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Askwith has been a journalist for more than 35 years. For the past 15 years he has been Associate Editor of the Independent. His first book, Feet in the Clouds, won Best New Writer at the British Sports Book Awards and the Bill Rollinson Prize for Landscape and Tradition. It was shortlisted for the William Hill and Boardman-Tasker prizes and was named by Runner's World as one of the three best running books of all time. His 2014 book, Running Free, was short-listed for the Thwaites-Wainwright Prize.

Review

"A quest, both funny and sad, for the remnants of English country life" * Culture, The Sunday Times * "a penetrating look at eh state of rural England in the early 21st century...unsentimental about the past and unpersuaded by the present's superficiality" * BBC Who Do You Think You Are magazine * "Thought-provoking and highly readable" * BBC Homes & Antiques * "A gentle book, a search for something no longer there, as perhaps it never had been" * The Spectator * "[Askwith] succeeds handsomely, ferreting out a remarkable array of old-timers...their disappearing world captured vividly" * Culture, The Sunday Times *

Edition details

• Publisher: Isis Large Print Books
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0753156865
• ISBN 13: 9780753156865
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 453