Next to Nature

''All the charm, wonder, eccentricity and vigour of country life is here in these pages, and told with such engaging directness, detail and colour . . . Bliss'' STEPHEN FRY''A capacious work that ...

''All the charm, wonder, eccentricity and vigour of country life is here in these pages, and told with such engaging directness, detail and colour . . . Bliss'' STEPHEN FRY''A capacious work that contains multitudes . . . a work to amble through, seasonally, relishing the vivid dashes of colour and the precision and delicacy of the descriptions'' THE SPECTATOR''My favourite read of the year . . . warm, funny and moving'' SUNDAY TIMES''A writer whose pages you turn and then turn back immediately to re-read, relish and get by heart'' SUSAN HILL, SUNDAY TELEGRAPHRonald Blythe lived at the end of