But I have a love of art, literature, gardening, architecture and history (all represented throughout the book) and yet I still felt long portions overly tedious and at times pretentious. Beautifully written and structured, Plumley’s writing is vivid and captures bucolic scenes perfectly. Unfortunately, it veered away from that and turned into an odd sort of history of the English village and a discussion of one particular artist’s set of paintings. His writing style is also top tier: the book is written in a way that is at once conversational, poetic and intellectual. There were moments which felt “socially preachy” and I find that annoying, especially when I already feel that the book was misrepresented to me.

Mrs Woolf, wife of the manager, is a very celebrated author and, in her own way, more important than Galsworthy.Corvus Atlantic’s commercial fiction list which includes women’s, historical, romance, sci-fi, crime and thriller. I listened to the audible audio edition but it isn't on Goodreads yet and I can't find the asin number to add it. Slightly Foxed brings back forgotten voices through its Slightly Foxed and Plain Foxed Editions, a series of beautifully produced little pocket hardback reissues of classic memoirs, all of them absorbing and highly individual. As a final thought, while I was reading this the author posted a comment by a reviewer that said they weren’t able to continue reading the book due to the prevalence of references to his alternative lifestyle. What starts out as a straightforward house history morphs into something else, a wide-ranging meditation on place and past, taking in climate change, rural depopulation, the Reformation and folklore .

What I found a bit of a bore was the author (there I have said it) he seemed to drone on a bit if I am honest. From a simple question about the age of a house, this book takes you on a much wider journey, encompassing art, literature, history and nature, as well as the inescapable fragility of life. He also delved extensively into the art of the Tudor period and came across the 16th century immigration issues. With ancient beams crossing the ceiling, the date they'd been given of 1800 seemed out by centuries. With passion and precision, Gavin Plumley pushes the boundaries of memoir and scholarship and shows that the chronicle of a house can contain the grand history of a whole world as well as the sweet, urgent story of a life: all that intimacy within the vastness of historical time.It’s rare that non-fiction has the power to transport you so completely and catch you up in a world that you have never known, and that you never want to leave.

If your interest is the Herefordshire aspect of this one, I would say steer clear- it doesn't give anywhere near enough sadly. A work of non-fiction, it was published by Atlantic Books in hardback and e-book on 2 June 2022 to wide acclaim and then released as an audiobook by W.

Keen to fit in, yet sensitive to homophobia, Plumley and his husband soon came up against the harsh realities of life in a rural community. As Gavin traced Stepps House through various hands and eras, he saw the picture of a past emerge that resonates powerfully with our present.