Food is fundamental to life. The way we produce it is the most pressing issue of our times. In recent years, several family-run farms in the downlands of West Dorset have decided to radically change their approach to working the land. When the artist Chris Drury and poet-novelist Kay Syrad began collaborating with this group of farmers in the villages of Godmanstone and Sydling St Nicholas, they began to discover why these changes were being made and what they might mean for the local communities - and all of us - who depend on the farmed landscape for food. Chris Drury's artwork and Kay Syrad's prose-poetry combine here to form a sensitive and authentic portrait of a group of men and women whose lives are shaped by the land. It is a rich exploration of work, soil and the sustainability of their farming practice. With its focus on a very particular landscape, the book reveals to us the creativity and resilience of organic farming, and shows just how much we all need to value the complexities of food production and our future relationship with the land.

About the Author
KAY SYRAD's novels include Send and The Milliner and the Phrenologist. She has also published the poetry collections, Double Edge and Objects of Colour, and two Thames & Hudson artist's monographs. She is Poetry Editor of Envoi and a member of the art collective, Sensory Sites. Her artist's book, 1000 tasks: work of the lightshipmen, was recently acquired by the National Maritime Museum.CHRIS DRURY is an artist who has spent over forty years working and exhibiting on every continent making connections between nature and culture. His work uses a variety of materials to make explicit these connections and he has collaborated with people from a wide range of disciplines, including scientists, doctors, ecologists and architects as well as small rural communities worldwide.


Book Information
ISBN 9781908213341
Author Kay Syrad
Format Paperback
Page Count 136
Imprint Little Toller Books
Publisher Little Toller Books
Dimensions(mm) 225mm * 150mm * 15mm