Farming Times

London: H P & G Witherby Ltd. Very Good +/Very Good +. 1992. First Edition. Inscribed By the Author Signed by author on title page. Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Grey cloth with bright gilt titling. 223 pages clean and tight. In 1988 Paul Heiney suddenly decided to become a farmer. Not the usual kind - more of an Old MacDonald, the type who puts his faith in carthorses, a hand-plough and well-ripened muck. A chance encounter with a couple who worked their land with horses, and subsequently a year's part-time labour on their farm, sowed the seeds of a passion that finally led him to brave the mirth of incredulous friends and begin the search for a place of his own on which he could practise the gentler methods of traditional agriculture. So it was that in 1990 he and his wife, Libby Purves, installed themselves on 36 acres of Suffolk countryside (complete with traditional farm buildings and yard), together with their two young children, three splendid Suffolk Punch horses, some Red Poll cattle, Dorset sheep and a Large Black pig called Alice. Two years of back-breaking labour later, all lingering bucolic fantasies have been dispelled. But, as readers of his `Farmer's Diary' column in The Times will know, the hard work has been accompanied by glorious moments of achievement. From the beginning of the enterprise they have lived with him through the traumas of the great thistle invasion and the first harvest; sympathised with him when he feared the task would overwhelm him; and rejoiced with him over the discovery of a precious horse-drawn binder and the safe delivery of Alice's first litter. Heartwarming and funny (most often at his own expense), Farming Times is more than just a collection of Paul Heiney's best Times articles. It is a delightful chronicle of the changing seasons on an English farm and an unforgettable portrait of a man in determined pursuit of a dream. .