The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland - Brossura

"He describes beautifully the changing of the seasons and the habits of animals such as the hares that make their home in his field. The book is a superb piece of nature writing." (Ian Critchley Sunday Times)

"That John Lewis-Stempel is one of the best nature writers of his generation is undisputed." (Country Life)

"Englightening and stylish...Readers who enjoyed the author’s last book, Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field, will find much in the same vein here: a mix of agricultural history, rural lore, topographical description and childhood memories. I learned a good deal.... Lewis-Stempel is a fine stylist, adroitly conjuring scenes in which “medieval mist hangs in the trees” or “frost clenches the ground”..." (Sara Wheeler Observer)

"A beautifully written paean to the countryside in all its rich diversity." (PD Smith Guardian)

"A beautifully observed book, full of poetic descriptions. Brilliant and galvanising." (Sunday Express)

"Lewis-Stempel is a fourth-generation farmer gifted with an extraordinary ability to write prose that soars and sings, like a skylark over unspoiled fields. This wonderful book (a worthy follow-up to his brilliant Meadowland) is a hymn in praise of enlightened farming methods which reject lethal chemicals and allow insects, birds and flowers to thrive, as once they did.

As an experiment Lewis-Stempel rents an ordinary arable field (his own property is a hill farm) to plough and manage in the old-fashioned way, transforming it into a traditional wheatfield to attract wildlife. Even ― he hopes ― hares. The work is back-breaking but the rewards are sublime. Like the hares, Lewis-Stempel’s words dance." (Bel Mooney, Daily Mail)

"Fans of Lewis-Stempel's bestselling Meadowland will find here the same easy-reading prose fuelled by daft-as-a-brush enthusiasm and embellished with lyrical flourishes ... the mud-spattered details of a farming life lend The Running Hare a unique realness." (Mail on Sunday)

"A beautiful love letter ... to a wheat field [and] a pleasurable read" (BBC Countryfile)

"A stirring rural fantasia...Lewis-Stempel's heart and mind are absolutely in the right place. I salute him and I adored his appreciation of the quirky detail." (The Times)

"This rather beautiful book is very much in the mould of the new nature writing, but it’s also wondrously inspiring." (Marcus Berkmann Daily Mail)

The critically acclaimed celebration of English wildlife and the bestselling natural history title of 2016, SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2017.