BY JAMIE FOSTER In an era of relentless testing and digital distraction, Adhirath Sethi’s The Moving of Mountains arrives like a cool drink on a dusty lane. This is not merely a book about an educational charity; it is a gentle, immersive ramble through rural India, and a powerful reminder that the best lessons are often learned with dirt on your hands and wonder in your eyes. … Continue reading The Moving of Mountains
BY JAMIE FOSTER Miriam A. Bibby’s “Working Horses in London” is a brilliantly condensed and vividly illustrated love letter to the true, four-legged architects of one of the world’s great cities. This book performs a remarkable feat: it restores the silent, clip-clopping multitudes to their rightful place at the heart of London’s bustling narrative, making you see the city’s history through a fresh and deeply … Continue reading Working Horses in London
BY JAMIE FOSTER For anyone who has ever dreamed of escaping the rat race, of feeling soil between their fingers and living in tune with the seasons, Allison Lee’s “Free-Range and Flourishing: The Smallholder’s Year” is the compassionate and practical guide you’ve been waiting for. This book is far more than a manual; it is an invitation to a way of life that is both … Continue reading Free-Range and Flourishing
BY NICK PEARCE If you’ve ever spent a day by the water, rod in hand, and found yourself muttering at tangled lines, scoffing at the weather, or questioning your own sanity, then Paul Dady’s “Rod Rage: The Trials of Trouting” is your new bible. This book is an utter delight, a perfectly captured essence of the angler’s psyche that is as insightful as it is … Continue reading The Trials of Trouting
BY JAMIE FOSTER David Rivière’s “Dew Ponds” is an absolute gem of a book, a beautifully crafted exploration that transforms a seemingly simple feature of the landscape into a subject of wonder, history, and artistry. From the moment you pick up this compact yet richly detailed volume, it’s clear that this is a labour of love, offering a perfect blend of meticulous research and visual … Continue reading Dew Ponds
BY IAN MITCHELL The authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, single-volume edition Charles Moore was appointed by Margaret Thatcher as her authorised biographer. He published three volumes between 2013 and 2019. Now, timed to coincide with the centenary of his subject’s birth this month, he has condensed those into a single-volume thousand-pager, which I highly recommend for all those interested in the question of how to rescue … Continue reading She Saved Her Country From Socialists
BY NICK PEARCE Allison Lee’s My Husband’s Child is a masterfully crafted novel that delves deep into the complexities of marriage, loss, and the haunting power of the past. Told through the eyes of Kate, a woman who has lived for years in the shadow of her absent husband, Miles, the story unfolds with a slow-burning intensity that keeps the reader utterly captivated from the very first … Continue reading My Husband’s Child
BY JAMIE FOSTER Practical Gundog Training represents a significant contribution to gundog literature, offering a comprehensive and expertly crafted guide that will prove invaluable to both amateur handlers and professional trainers. Drawing upon their combined fifty years of practical experience in working gundogs across various field disciplines, authors Nick Ridley and Fran Ardley have produced a manual that stands apart through its universal applicability and emphasis … Continue reading Practical Gundog Training
BY ALEXIA JAMES In a world increasingly shaped by globalist agendas, climate alarmism, and authoritarian encroachment, Daniel Jupp’s F*ck the Planet: How to Resist the Great Reset in the Trump Era, so we are told, stands out as a fearless, unapologetic, and urgently needed manifesto for those who feel disenfranchised by the absurdities of modern politics. More than just a critique of the status quo, … Continue reading F*ck the Planet
BY JAMIE FOSTER The book Cumbrian Yarn: The Wool That Binds the County, written by Beth and Steve Pipe and published by Amberley Publishing, is a beautifully crafted exploration of Cumbria’s rich wool heritage. Released on February 15th, this book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in textiles, local history, or the enduring connection between people, place, and craft. The book takes readers … Continue reading A Review of Cumbrian Yarn: The Wool That Binds the County
BY ROGER WATSON Saint Columba achieved the seemingly impossible in converting Scotland from its Druidic pagan ways to Christianity in the sixth century. Travelling across the Irish Sea to Scotland and travelling between the Western Isles of Scotland on treacherous seas in open boats, he faced other dangers on land. Warlike kings, bloodthirsty druids and even the Loch Ness Monster – its first recorded sighting … Continue reading Columba’s Travels
BY JAMIE FOSTER How to Draw Ponies by Norman Thelwell is a delightful and insightful guide that combines expert drawing techniques with the artist’s signature wit and charm. First published in 1982, the book remains an enduring classic for both aspiring artists and fans of Thelwell’s much-loved cartoon ponies. Thelwell, whose illustrations of stubborn, plump ponies and their determined young riders are known around the … Continue reading How to Draw Ponies
BY JAMIE FOSTER Liz Hodgkinson’s My Covid Diary is a bold and thought-provoking reflection on the unprecedented times of the Covid-19 pandemic and the societal, political, and personal upheavals that accompanied it. Through her candid and unapologetic lens, Hodgkinson challenges mainstream narratives, arguing that the pandemic’s true purpose lay not in public health but in financial gain and societal control. Written in an engaging, personal … Continue reading My Covid Diary
BY PETER HARRIS When the Labour Party chose Jeremy Corbyn as its leader, Peter Hitchens wrote an article for the Daily Mail asking whether the Conservative Party could choose a true conservative leader now that the Labour Party had a true socialist as theirs. What the Conservatives had as prime minister during Corbyn’s party leadership were three leaders who are best defined as neo-liberals: David … Continue reading Conservatism By Dominic Wightman, Reviewed
BY JAMIE FOSTER Stephen Pax Leonard’s Noble Sentiments for an Exile and Other Writings is a captivating collection of travelogues, vignettes, and lyrical essays that transport the reader to the remote corners of northern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Leonard’s writing is deeply evocative, skillfully blending personal experiences, historical context, and philosophical reflections to create a rich mix of sound, place, and memory. The … Continue reading Noble Sentiments for an Exile
BY ROGER WATSON The mistress of magical realism has struck again. Elif Shafak’s latest novel There Are Rivers in The Sky is a masterpiece. Perhaps, given her feminist credentials, that ought to be a ‘misstresspiece’. As intriguing as anything in her output to date, like most of her novels, this is rooted in her own Turkish culture. The novel has three characters separated in space … Continue reading There Are Rivers in The Sky
BY JAMIE FOSTER Footpaths: A British History by Tom King is a richly illustrated exploration of Britain’s distinctive network of footpaths and bridleways, which serve as cherished ‘rights of way’ that have enhanced the lives of countless individuals. These pathways create a delicate web across the landscape, marked by stiles and fingerposts, and represent a unique element of the British countryside. Legally recognised as part … Continue reading Footpaths: A British History
BY JAMES BEMBRIDGE 12:30 pm, The Beaujolais, Soho. A meeting with Cloe. Behind us, a table of lunching women – that is, women who don’t lunch. About their bones, dresses hang like sheets caught on a telephone pole. One braves a grain of mozzarella, hesitates on it, and then returns it to the plate. ‘Filling, isn’t it?’ she asks. The plate is one of two … Continue reading The Secret
BY JAMIE FOSTER Annie Tempest has been called a national treasure for her much-lauded and internationally loved cartoon strip about a fictitious English village with the eccentric Lord and Lady Tottering and their family who reside at Tottering Hall. During the thirty years that ‘Tottering-by-Gently’ has appeared weekly in Country Life magazine, the Tottering family – all three generations of them – have been seen … Continue reading Fun and Games with the Totterings
BY JOE NUTT I’ve always empathised with the charming character Bill Nighy plays in the Richard Curtis film, About Time. He uses his peculiarly inherited ability to time travel, for the most admirable of purposes; he rereads Dickens. I’m perfectly aware that that statement alone risks losing readers, not just because sitting quietly on one’s own, engrossed in a fiction isn’t high up on the … Continue reading Why and What Do You Read?
