After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced, has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding. For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms...

The children attend a farm show with their donkey.

More than fifty years later, Annabel's daughter Fionna discovered the manuscript in a desk drawer and, while preparing it for publication, was inspired to expand on the theme. A Grass Bank Beyond covers an extended period before mains services and frequent ferries brought about change to the Ross. Fionna remembers the freedom she enjoyed roaming the island on foot, bicycle, pony, or boat. On family outings she absorbed stories and legends about the...

Phoeba Crupp is a gal of inconveniently independent tendencies, to the concern of her mother and her sisters although not of her father - an eccentric ex-accountant who moved his family from the city to a small farm in rural Australia in order to establish a vineyard - a decision Phoeba's mother bitterly (and loudly) resents. But Phoeba has loved it since the day they arrived. While her sister makes a play for the local squatter's son, Phoeba is...

It is a touching coming-of-age tale: we see the author make new friends and romances while finding his own way in a changing world. He describes the passing of age-old country ways, as technology begins to replace traditional farming methods. The book is dedicated to Donald and Blossom, the magnificent pair of Clydesdale horses with which he ploughed, until the sad day when they were replaced by a smart Fordson tractor. Of those early times he writes:...

A celebration of the variety and versatility of a dozen or more determined women who have made a distinctive life for themselves 'far from the madding crowd'. Each chapter features inspirational women who have made the choice to live and work collaboratively with the people and places of the Yorkshire landscape.

Boggis, Bunce and Bean are just about the nastiest three farmers you could ever wish to meet. They hate Mr Fox and are determined to get him, and plan to catch him by whatever means necessary.

A fresh and collectible cover look for the treasured series, with original 1953 Garth Williams inside illustrations. The only unabridged versions available in the UK. Ages: 8+.