The Countryman's Bedside Book

This re-issue of BB's classic memoir will be enjoyed by all who appreciate fine country writing, and who believe passionately in the resilience of Mother Nature, despite the follies of mankind.

Denys Watkins-Pitchford (better known as BB) wrote these wonderful essays on the English countryside in the 1930s – a time of peace and renewal between two world wars. The book was finally published in 1941 when, as BB puts it, England was 'in the darkest hour of our history.'

BB captures here in words and sensitive wood engravings the wonders of English wildlife and countryside.

Includes essays on:

– ravens and rookeries

– the stone curlew

– the purple emperor butterfly

– a woodcutter's house

– an encounter with a wildfowler one frosty dawn

– a night fishing on the Solway

– the strange behaviour of song thrushes

– the rescue of a black labrador

– a favourite copse

– the accidental death of a groom

– village characters

– hedgerows – and many more topics