{"product_id":"ghosts-of-the-farm-isbn-9781915294678","title":"Ghosts of the Farm","description":"\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the 2025 Richard Jefferies Award\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Book of the Year 2025 — \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the Wainwright Nature Prize Highly Commended author Nicola Chester, a rural narrative between two women in two different eras who both wanted to become farmers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nicola Chester will come to be seen as a Nan Shepherd of our time.\"—Nick Acheson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Meaning of Geese\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the story of Miss White, a woman who lived in the author’s village 80 years ago, a pioneer who realised her ambition to become a farmer during the Second World War, and how she worked to become accepted within this community. Nicola Chester, too, dreamed of becoming a farmer but working with horses was the only path open to her. Was it easier for women to become farmers in the 1940s than it is now?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMoving between Nicola’s own attempts to work outdoors and Miss White’s desire to farm a generation earlier, Nicola explores the parallels between their lives – and the differences. Miss White buys a derelict farm and begins to renovate and modernize it. As ghost (barn) owls flit between these two worlds, Nicola draws connections with farming and rural life in both times, from the role of women in rural communities in the modern day to Miss White’s experience in the 1940s. And how those farming modernizations have left the modern day with both a denuded landscape and farming community and a disconnect from nature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncreasingly, Nicola’s research into past and present interlinks and illuminates her own battles to raise awareness of rural communities, outdoor work and the ongoing loss of farmland birds that were so familiar to Miss White.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An absolutely fascinating insight into women and farming. Nicola Chester really knows how to bring the past alive.\"—Claire Fuller, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Memory of Animals\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e‘Nicola Chester is the John Clare of our time.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGuy Shrubsole, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Lost Rainforests of Britain\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘This is a rich and riveting book, and I didn’t want it to end. Interweaving the fascinating story of a woman farmer in the Second World War with the author’s own story as she attempts to advocate for a nature-depleted countryside, it’s a gentle battle cry – heartwarming, melancholy and vital.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLissa Evans, author of \u003ci\u003eSmall Bomb at Dimperley\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A wonderfully evocative account of a fascinating and until now untold story, uniting two women’s passion for farming and the English countryside.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eStephen Moss, author of \u003ci\u003eTen Birds That Changed the World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Nicola’s evocation of Miss White truly haunts me. Energetic, enigmatic and with one foot poised over a chasm of change, \u003ci\u003eGhosts of the Farm\u003c\/i\u003e brings joy and thoughtfulness, litanies of horses’ names and Land Girls hoeing in their underwear. The woman farmer from wartime and the woman writer from the present, whose stories haunt this book, share a practicality, frustrations, hopes and fears for the future of the landscape they love.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlison Brackenbury, poet and broadcaster\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘This captivating dual-stranded memoir puts rural women firmly in their place: right at the heart of the farm. Nicola Chester and her indomitable predecessor Miss Julia White are unforgettable guides to a changed and changing countryside.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMelissa Harrison, author of \u003ci\u003eAll Among the Barley\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Nicola Chester will come to be seen as a Nan Shepherd of our time. She knows the land, and its lives, with a knowing that can only come from a million barefoot steps across it. She loves the land with a tenacity that stems only from having fought and cried hot tears for it. And she writes with a clarity that aches on the page. Ghosts of the Farm is devastatingly good. Hairs-on-the-back-of-my-neck good.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNick Acheson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Meaning of Geese\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘No one, but no one, writes like Nicola Chester. Her blend of grit, sensitivity, integrity, wisdom and artistry is unique. \u003ci\u003eGhosts of the Farm\u003c\/i\u003e is a clear-eyed view of the social and ecological thinning of English rural life, but it’s also a breath of oxygen to its resilient embers of sustainability and equitability. A bittersweet and timely tonic for the soul of British farming.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAmy-Jane Beer, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Flow\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A heartening, haunted and beautifully written book that is a powerful paean to rural life and working the land.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRob Cowen, author of \u003ci\u003eThe North Road\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Through Nicola’s experiences, the heartbeats of ghosts are revived and woven into the present and future, reminding us that we are all rooted to the earth we share, live and eventually become. Nicola is a special writer: her words the tips of her consciousness and the core of her bones. \u003ci\u003eGhosts of the Farm\u003c\/i\u003e transports me through time while inviting me to embrace every single moment and the wild and tame lives we share our territories with.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHannah Bourne-Taylor, author of \u003ci\u003eNature Needs You\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘\u003ci\u003eGhosts of the Farm\u003c\/i\u003e is much more than a tale of two women struggling to become farmers while battling prejudice against their gender. Written in exquisite prose, it is a story celebrating the glory of the countryside and country living, a story of struggles and triumphs, in times of war and peace. I found myself rooting for both heroines.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRhys Bowen, internationally best-selling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Tuscan Child\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Venice Sketchbook\u003c\/i\u003e and other historical novels, as well as the Royal Spyness and Molly Murphy mystery series\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e 'An absolutely fascinating insight into women and farming. Nicola Chester really knows how to bring the past alive.' \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eClaire Fuller, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Memory of Animals\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e'Chester writes about nature beautifully, but she’s also doing something more important. She’s trying to unpick how the countryside has, in many ways, got to where it is now. It’s nature writing, politics, social history and the best kind of fireside story telling – all skilfully knitted into one.'\u003cb\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSally Coulthard, author of \u003ci\u003eA Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e'Chester's account of being a teenage stable girl will resonate . . . [and she] is at her best when immersed in rural detail, whether the thunderstones kept in the Manor House dairy to stop the milk from curdling . . . or when revelling in the evocative equine vocabulary of Chifney bits, curry combs and surcingles.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCountry Living\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eNicola is the author of the award-winning memoir \u003ci\u003eOn Gallows Down; Place, Protest and Belonging\u003c\/i\u003e (Chelsea Green, 2021). One of the early female pioneers of nature writing, she has written a column for the RSPB magazine since 2004 after winning \u003ci\u003eBBC Wildlife Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e’s Nature Writer of the Year Award. She is a \u003ci\u003eGuardian \u003c\/i\u003eCountry Diarist and writes for \u003ci\u003eBBC Countryfile Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e as well as other online and print publications\u003ci\u003e. \u003c\/i\u003eNicola’s writing also features in several anthologies, most recently \u003ci\u003eWild Service\u003c\/i\u003e, (Bloomsbury, 2024, ed. by Nick Hayes and Jon Moses) \u003ci\u003eUnder the Changing Skies, The Best of The Guardian Country Diary, 2018-2024\u003c\/i\u003e (Faber\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003e2024, ed. Paul Fleckney) and \u003ci\u003eWomen On Nature \u003c\/i\u003e(Unbound, 2021, ed. Katharine Norbury). She wrote for the RSPB’s Junior and Youth Magazines for many years, inspiring many of today’s young wildlife campaigners. A former school librarian, she is a judge for the inaugural 2025 Climate Fiction Prize, launched at the Hay Festival, and has been a guest speaker and taught sessions for undergraduate, post-graduate and MA Creative Writing students at Cambridge University, Bournemouth University and Sheffield University, and for the MA in Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa. A passionate campaigner and activist for nature, Nicola and her family are tenants in an estate worker’s cottage at the heart of the North Wessex Downs in the UK.","brand":"Chelsea Green Publishing UK","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233192292581,"sku":"NP9781915294678","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781915294678.jpg?v=1767728088","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/ghosts-of-the-farm-isbn-9781915294678","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}