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Country Life

A Story of Peaks and Troughs

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Country Life

By: Giles Wood, Mary Killen
Narrated by: Giles Wood, Mary Killen
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The Nutty Idyll

Former townies Giles and Mary swapped city life for rural Wiltshire over thirty years ago, and they've each embraced it in their own very different ways.

Mary has happily traded sophisticated London salons for monthly lectures at the Farmers' Club, competitive school quizzes, church interactions and local Auction House sales. While Giles has immersed himself in the catastrophic consequences of conventional farming, his organic no-dig veg-patch, the increasingly disproportionate response by local landlords to harmless trespassers and the strange death of the village house martins.

For recent city escapees and indigenous country folk alike, Giles and Mary sift through the unhelpful dreamy myths and offer a practical reality, with robust back and forth on every aspect of life in rural outposts, including but not limited to planning wars, class wars, dog thefts, tree-felling fights, misunderstandings between incomers and natives and the role of the Heron Appreciation Society.

The much-loved Wiltshire couple share their combined, hard-earned lessons, so we can learn the secret skills of grumbling and bumbling our way towards a new contented country life.

©2023 Giles Wood and Mary Killen (P)2023 Penguin Audio Cultural & Regional Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Village

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All stars
Most relevant
Love Giles and Mary. This second audiobook doesn’t disappoint. Hope they do another in the future

Another good audio

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So glad I listened to this. It not only explores country life and "indigini" versus city decampers, as described, but it also delves into the family past of Giles and Mary, their contrasting heritages; and also the effects of the Pandemic on attitudes on where and how best to live your life. Really well read by them both too. Thought-provoking easy listening

Honestly, just lovely and surprising

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Glorious in their charming state of conflict … they are just wonderful. If only we were neighbours!

I immediately started searching for rural properties ….

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A wonderfully wholesome and fascinating look into country Life with Giles and Mary interspersed with references to their first book which I enjoyed in equal measure. Ten out of ten.

Simply lovely

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Very interesting and informative..an inside view of the Giles and Marys lives in Wiltshire and beyond.

Sharing their story

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