News from Somewhere: On Settling

by RogerScruton (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $4.57

  For a number of years Roger Scruton has contributed a weekly article to the Financial Times on country matters. Always beautifully written, one of these pieces (Vegetables) won the 2002 prize from The Queen's English Society for the best piece of prose writing of the year. These are not sentimental bucolic rambles. Scruton's prose is devoid of sentimentality and soggy nostalgia. Whatever he writes about, he always writes with serious purpose. He speaks up for the country dweller who sees his or her world eroded by the wishy-washy liberal commands of Blairite dogooders who sit on their backsides in North West London pontificating about the needs of country people. Nature being red in tooth and claw is something that these people only know about from sitting in a classroom. Farming issues are equally important in this book. The devastations of the foot and mouth crisis showed graphically how great is the divide between town and country dwellers. And when the fate of people in the countryside is decided by bureaucrats in Brussels and Strasbourg, their feeling of alienation is even greater. These are the causes that Professor Scruton espouses and he has become their most intelligent, articulate and clear-thinking advocate.

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $5.41

  News from Somewhere tells the story of a philosopher's attempt to settle in rural Wiltshire. In a style that is both deeply felt and full of humour, Roger Scruton describes the people and animals around his farm, the condition of rural society, the impact of recent disasters, the eccentric pursuits and hard-won consolations of the English yeoman farmer, and the joy and vitality that constantly break through the clouds of grief. This book draws on the author's much-praised accounts of rural life in the national press, and presents a challenge to those who claim to solve the problems of farmers by dictating to them from city offices. It explores the changing face of rural England with sympathy for its residents, respect for their way of life, and subdued anger at the crazy impediments placed in their way by Westminster and Brussels. Its evocative prose is a testimony to the lasting significance of the English countryside and of the culture that has been inscribed in it. Everyone who is concerned for our rural heritage will learn from this vivid description of the people on whom it depends.