Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders

by Rory Stewart

Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade as MP for Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and the Border. As he came to know and love this part of Cumbria, he found inspiration in the beauty of its landscape, its rugged history as a frontierland, and in the spirit of its people.

Drawing on pieces originally written for a local newspaper, Middleland is an urgent and inspiring portrait of rural Britain today – a place caught in tensions between farming and the natural world, between the need to preserve and to grow, between local and national politics – as well as a timeless evocation of the history, people and landscape of Cumbria.

These are stories of beauty and ingenuity, which also show us what a better politics might look like.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Biography, History, Audiobook, Nature, Memoir

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2025

About the author

Rory Stewart was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Malaysia. He served briefly as an officer in the British Army (the Black Watch), studied history and philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford and then joined the British Diplomatic Service. He worked in the British Embassy in Indonesia and then, in the wake of the Kosovo campaign, as the British Representative in Montenegro. In 2000 he took two years off and began walking from Turkey to Bangladesh. He covered 6000 miles on foot alone across Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal -- a journey described in The Places in Between.

In 2003, he became the coalition Deputy Governor of Maysan and Dhi Qar -- two provinces in the Marsh Arab region of Southern Iraq. He has written for a range of publications including the New York Times Magazine, the London Review of Books, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and Granta. In 2004, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire and became a Fellow of the Carr Centre at Harvard University. In 2006 he moved to Kabul, where he established the Turquoise Mountain Foundation.

In 2010 he was elected as a Conservative member of the British Parliament. In 2014 was elected chair of the Defence Select Committee. He served under David Cameron as Minister for the Environment from 2015 to 2016. He served as a minister throughout Theresa May’s government as Minister of State for International Development, Minister of State for Africa and Minister of State for Prisons. He ultimately joined the Cabinet and National Security Council as Secretary of State for International Development. After May announced she would be stepping down, Stewart stood as a candidate to be Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the 2019 leadership contest. His campaign was defined by his unorthodox use of social media and opposition to a no-deal Brexit. He stated at the beginning of his campaign that he would not serve under Boris Johnson and when Johnson became prime minister, in July 2019, Stewart resigned from the cabinet.

On 3 October 2019 Stewart announced he had resigned from the Conservative Party and that he would stand down as an MP at the next general election. He initially put himself up to be an independent candidate in the 2021 London mayoral election but withdrew on 6 May 2020 on the grounds of the election being postponed due to COVID-19, saying he could not maintain the campaign so long against the big budgets of the Labour and Conservative campaigns. In September 2020 he became a fellow at Yale University, teaching politics and international relations.

Reviews

[Louie Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this on some of my longer runs. Rory Stewart's paean to his adopted homeland of Cumbria (old Cumbric for 'our land') as an MP is evocative and wonderfully realised during his lengthy descriptions of the landscape and wildlife. One can't go away thinking that he didn't absolutely love his constituency and its inhabitants, a people of which he seems to have been anticipating to find a clear Cumbrian identity - but instead finds 'contradictory and totally improbable'.

Never again will I read (hear) the words 'small upland farms' as much as in this book, because it seems that he is the sole person in the entire government who is nostalgic about the people and their livelihoods that have existed for thousands of years on the slopes of Penrith and the Border. Sometimes his dedication to preserving these ancient livelihoods challenged my own beliefs around rewilding and habitat restoration, but by the end even this town boy felt deeply enraged at the loss of small pastoral living. I finished the book wanting to see the lands he describes myself, and wishing that we had more deep-thinking, serious and dedicated politicians like Rory Stewart.

[AmyAmyAmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

6/5 if only all MPs took this level of interest in their constituency!

[Suzie Berendt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating history of Cumbria as well as thought provoking political messages. I especially liked the notion of how important local politics is, and how it can not only help at the individual level but can also transpire to national and international politics. This book made me fall in love with the Lake District even more!

[Anneliese Tirry · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Ik ken Rory Stewart omdat ik ooit van hem een wandelboek heb gelezen "The Marches". Het is in dat boek dat ik ontdekte dat hij ook iemand is/was in de Britse politiek : een MP (volksvertegenwoordiger) voor Cumbria voor de Tories. Soms zie ik hem ook passeren op FB waar hij gesprekken houdt over politiek, hij is een zeer gematigd man. Hij heeft ook een (betalende) podcast over politiek die ik niet volg (want betalend!).
Een lange inleiding dus om te zeggen dat ik dit wel een boeiende man vind. Toen ik dus dit boek zag liggen, heb ik het gewoon gekocht.
Het boek bestaat uit columns die hij schreef tijdens zijn tijd als MP voor de lokale krant "The Herald". De stukken werden geschreven tussen 2009 en 2019 en werden eerder geschikt per thema dan chronologisch.
In zijn boek dus telkens korte stukjes over de geschiedenis van de regio, politiek (ook zijn teleurstelling omtrent Brexit en de gang van zaken in zijn partij erna, hij heeft de partij dan ook verlaten), economie in de regio, ... Maar bovenal gaan zijn kronieken over de liefde voor zijn streek, Cumbria. Ze verhalen over zijn betrokkenheid en bezorgdheid bij het verdwijnen van de kleine boerderijen, over zijn bewondering voor het typische landschap daar, over hun manier van leven, over rewilding en wat dit kan meebrengen, over zijn hoop en zijn vertrouwen in de mensen die er wonen en die blijk geven van een enorme veerkracht. Over het vermogen van de lokale bevolking tot samenwerken met alle partijen/instanties om tot de best mogelijke oplossing te komen en over hun kracht om zelf de dingen in hand te nemen. Ja, ze hebben daar wel al wat verwezenlijkt de Cumbrians.
Ik heb het dus wel graag gelezen, verschillende columns per treinrit.
Wij zijn hier nogal fans van het Noorden van Engeland en ik zag ook dit landschap voor mij terwijl ik het boek las.
Goed ook vond ik zijn paar intermezzo's waarbij hij één en ander schetst. En ook, zeker bij bepaalde politieke acties, schreef hij op het einde van de column een kort extra stukje met hoe het er nu, toch al vele jaren later, voorstaat, of hoe hij zijn mening heeft veranderd, of waarom hij gelijk of geen gelijk had. Ook dat heb ik geapprecieerd.
Het is misschien geen boek voor de gemiddelde Belgische lezer wegens onbekend met de regio, maar voor mij paste het wonderwel wel, ook al omdat ik het vlak na "Helm" las van Sarah Hall. Dat boek speelt zich in dezelfde Eden-Valley af.

[Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book I've read by Rory Stewart and was my least favourite of the three, but only because it isn't a chronological narrative but rather a collection of columns from his time as MP for Penrith and the Border between 2010 and 2019. However, it was still enjoyable and his writing is always very straightforward and restrained. He sometimes does this thing where he'll finish a section with a final, short observational sentence that leaves you thinking for a long time afterwards, often the feelings you experience through these closing remarks are sad, melancholy and reflective. I might have got a lot more out of this book if I knew anything at all about Cumbria, or had ever visited, but I'd certainly like to now. Through his columns, Stewart touches on a lot of themes including history, geography, farming, regional and national identity, the shortcomings of Westminster/centralised bureaucracy and the environment, landscapes and the countryside. The book forced me to think about a more rural side of politics that I'm less familiar with, and consider some fresh ideas about the wisdom of the local, community action, people's assemblies and the virtue of regional experience and tradition vs. centralised top-down thinking. A great read.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

My parents bought me a signed copy of this book for Christmas and I finally got around to reading it. This book is an amalgamation of Rory Stewart’s reflections from his time as an MP for a constituency in Northern England, right beside the Scottish Borders. His reflections cover economic issues, environmental issues, and a lot of constituency history. The reflections are much more limited than Stewart’s other book, but are still interesting and thought provoking, especially when he criticises British institutions and the Tories. However, I did find the sections about his constituency’s history a little boring since I have no connection to it myself. Overall, it was an interesting read and pretty well written, but not my favourite writing style as the pieces are quite journalistic.

[Adam Lavender · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting perspective on the day to day life of an MP and a very rural part of England. Parts of this are quite repetitive and some of the environmental policy conversations are rooted in ideology I don’t identify with. That said, he writes well and his perspective is interesting, particularly with regard to the failure of the modern British political system to act effectively in the interests of its people.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook. Terrific. An elegy to Cumbria and to localism. Stewart was MP for Cumbria and The Borders for 10 years and wrote a regular letter to the local paper focused loosely on his role as their elected representative. In this book he describes and captures the sense of people and place that is this largest and remotest of Britain’s constituencies by linking and theming a selection of letters. It’s a fascinating insight into the history and story of this ‘middleland’ and how its people and nature are failed by our Westminster based political system. He celebrates the doers who make things happen despite the best efforts of central government. He reinforces Burnham’s drive to devolution and localism. Love him or hate him Stewart writes well and genuinely cares, even when getting things wrong!

[Rohan Pruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed, I love the Lake District and much of this is just a love letter to the history, culture, communities and landscape.

Has definitely made me reconsider how I think about rural landscape and what place people hold in it, vis a vis rewilding and such.

Equally made me think a lot on governance and devolution. I do think there does need to be a fundamental shift in how we govern ourselves, and I agree that it he more local power becomes it is for the better.

[Adam Lambert · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Always enjoy Rory Stewart's books. This one not quite as much as the others mainly due to the different narrative structure - this being a collection of previously-published letters rather than one continuous narrative or a series of walks. But Rory's deep love of Cumbria and his constituents is very apparent, and his knowledge of nature and history continues to be astoundingly impressive.

[Louisa Mead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Musings from Rory Stewart from his time in Cumbria where he certainly seemed to immerse himself in the local community. He admits some of his views haven’t aged well and he does come across as generally “anti” at times, but it does seem to come from a good place.
He’s added some context from now and overall it’s an interesting set of views from 8+ years ago… which at times seems a lifetime

[Anna Sutton]

I’m really sorry Rory, but I had to return this to the library

[William Chandler · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

A beautiful paean to a landscape and area I share Stewart’s appreciation for.

[Chris Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I started reading this I was wondering what the point of this book was supposed to be- a collection of abridged newspaper columns struck me as self-indulgent. But slowly I began to see this is as Stewarts tribute to his time representing an area which he obviously has a lot of affection for and feels a deep connection to.

It's comforting to think that there may be more MPs out there who are attempting to connect with their constituency in the same way- I certainly hope so.

The book is an insight into the life of an MP, the lives of those living in Penrith and the Border (as it was known), and I think the wider point being the disconnect between centralised government and local politics. The book does not offer much in the way of answers but I do not think that was the goal. I found it an interesting read moreso to hear about lives of people very different from mine and a nice tribute to some of the people working hard for their community.

3.5 stars.

[The Bookshop Mons · Rating 3 out of 5]

+ Nicely written
+ Beautiful
- Repetitive
- Very repetitive
- WHERE IS THE POLITICS, RORY ???

J.

[MR M W FAUST · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, and I was informed of things that I knew little about.
He writes very well but the dispatches were often somewhat repetitive.
He obviously has an abiding love for Cumbria and the Borders and would like to see the community continuing to carry on much as it has done for many, many years.
However we just have to accept that changes will happen, if we like it or not.

[Riley Cosgrove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout Middleland, it’s easy for us to feel the frustration often experienced as a member of parliament, for one to almost impossibly juggle the views of your party, your constituents, and yourself in an environment where the electorate have become less forgiving, and the party whips much less tolerant of “dissent”.

It is through the struggle of attempting to fulfill the needs of 100,000 Cumbrians that Rory weaves a passionate but well thought out plea for a more local style of democracy, drawing on ideas similar to ancient Athenian assemblies and Swiss cantons. The core message of wanting to devolve decision making comes from the recognition that Westminster evidently cannot grasp and act on the needs of Cumbria (the most rural county in England) with that of more urban and more developed areas. By interacting with the thousands of small businesses owners, charity workers, volunteers, and community organisers Rory takes an optimistic view of human nature, in which he feels that these people are better placed than the machine of national government to make decisions around planning, conservation etc.

Middleland also serves as Rory’s ode to the most “wild” and unique county in England, a place that has been moulded by millennia of Roman, Norse, Scottish and Norman influence - these cultures have amalgamated over thousands of years to create a group evidently so proud of, and so invested in their homeland. Evidently, the many instances of this land changing hands and being transformed by outside groups has created a culture divergent to that of the rest of England, one that knows its land best and can make its own decisions.

[Julie Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Penguin Random House for the advanced reading copy.

As a big Rory Stewart fan and dedicated follower of The Rest is Politics (and compiler of The Rest is Politics reading list on Bookshop.org (https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/the-res...), I even left my comfortable home in Herefordshire to go to Cumbria on the train to watch Rory in conversation with another of my favourite authors James Rebanks to talk about this book. It's fair to say expectation was high.

This is a collection of articles that Rory Stewart wrote for the Westmorland Gazette when he was MP for Penrith and the Borders and although most of the articles are around ten years old, the topics and issues that are raised in the articles are as relevant today as they were then.

Rory Stewart highlights that Cumbrians are victims and not beneficiaries of our tribal politics in Westminster, as indeed we all are. I agree with him that local autonomy and governance is crucial yet often conflicts with decisions made by central government. Another article comments on the fact that growth doesn't have to be about bigger and better, it can still be growth if successful small farms flourish and multiply.

It is a little Cumbria-centric and I did trawl through the first section on the history of the area a bit - it also feels a bit of a cop out just publishing a collection of essays that were written such a long time ago.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting insight into the mind of a passionate advocate for his area and, wider than that, for how we practice democracy in our country. Very readable and relatable, I enjoyed it. However ...
I wonder if people from outside the area (I live in the neighbouring constituency) will find it as engrossing
Many of the themes here were covered in Politics on the Edge, something Stewart does acknowledge.
The repetition of certain facts and themes gets a little irritating after a while.
There's a lot of white space in this book. The decision to start each 'letter' on a fresh page bulks the book out and perhaps makes it feel and seem like something more than it actually is - a publisher's decision?
Finally, a niggle this, whilst misspelling David Cameron's constituency as Whitney rather than Witney might be forgivable, talking of Reedsdale rather than Redesdale in Northumberland is perhaps less so.

Still, despite all this, worth a read.

[MargCal · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️
Finished reading ... Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders / Rory Stewart ... 12 February, 2026
ISBN: 9781787336247 .... 319 pp. 

As always, an absolute joy to read such beautiful writing. Stewart's love of the rural areas of his country shines through – landscape, history, people, his own family. Written during his time as an MP as columns for the local newspapers, it includes references to the decisions made by politicians, influenced by various lobby groups, often with little or no appreciation of what their decisions mean for the specific situations in Stewart's constituency, Penrith and the Border, now abolished. And also as always, Stewart walks. In this case through all the towns and villages in Penrith and the Border.

If you know Stewart's writing, you don't need convincing. If you don't, I can wholeheartedly recommend this although I'd probably start with The Marches: border walks with my father.


Borrowed from my local library.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite the unique and interesting perspective as both life as an MP, but also about what being a Cumbrian actually entails. From the challenges of small farmers to the difficulty receiving fast internet broadband, it is interesting to see just how different the rural communities in our country are and how they may feel badly represented in Parliament. It is rather heartwarming to see how the community so readily bands together and helps those within their community with their own initiatives, often in spite of rather than in conjunction with Westminster.

That being said, given that it is a collection of letters whose original audience was for Cumbrians and aren't in chronologically order, but rather arranged thematically, they can be a bit hard to follow in terms of a grander narrative. Some of the farming letters can be a bit difficult to follow as Stewart vividly describes the Cumbrian landscape using the specific names of species of animals and plants, which I had to take some time out of reading to look up.

Overall an engaging read, but it doesn't follow as nicely as some of his other works.

[Les Dangerfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sample of the letters Rory Stewart wrote each week for the main local paper during the (almost) ten years that he was a Conservative MP for Penrith and Borders between 2010 and 2019 when he stepped down. It was then the largest constituency in England and consequently relatively sparsely populated.

Each letter addresses a different aspect of the area - most commonly its history but also a variety of others. Needless to say many overlap in focus. It’s an interesting insight into how much there is to understand about a constituency and how well RS got under the skin of this one. I wonder how many MPs understand their constituencies quite as well as Stewart did his. I would think not a lot.

Each letter is three to four pages of the book and sometimes I found that the rapid change of focus between letters interrupted the continuity of the book too much.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short articles and essays form a passionate paean to Cumbria as a whole and and, in particular, to the area which formed the now (disgracefully!) defunct constituency of Penrith and the Borders. Rory Stewart writes with clarity and insight about the rich, complex history of the county as a whole, as well as of the constituency he served so well during his time as its/my MP. He portrayed a comprehensive understanding the particular needs of rural communities and was always a wonderful advocate for them, more than any other MP I've known. He also had huge respect for local politics and was a keen supporter of various local initiatives, often becoming very actively involved in them ... just think how much better our country would be with more MPs like him!

[Nick Granger · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone with a lifelong affection for Cumbria and the Lake District and a growing understanding and respect for Rory Stewart, I really enjoyed this, but without those two things, frankly I think a reader might find this odd collection of abridged newspaper articles pretty pointless and maybe rather self-indulgent. If you have either of those things, there is real treasure in these pages - the whole is so much more than the individual parts here. You are left with not just a real sense of the history of Cumbria, but an insight into Stewart’s love for the place. Along the way there are strong and thought-provoking threads on the challenges of national vs local democracy and man’s continual impact on the landscape. Recommended with the above reservations.

[Matt Barter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d like to start by expressing how much I believe Rory Stewart must have been an exceptional MP and his constituents were lucky to have him.

This book tackles local history, politics and his constituency’s environment in a way that is informative and deeply moving. As a man that believes that a strong community with it’s own political landscape is a good thing and would help the country be run in a much better way I agreed with a large amount of what Rory was trying to get across.

I would highly recommend this book to any politically minded individual as you get an education and a travel book all in one!

[Andy Lancelot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this, much as I would enjoy a walk through the Lake District.

It was a collection of seemingly random nuggets of real life with the backdrop of Cumbria, leaving me relaxed and refreshed.

Much like this hypothetical long walk in the Lakes is often interrupted by a spell of rain, there were a couple of bits in the middle that caused me to be annoyed and have a rant (two or three bits about the Scottish independence referendum, which didn’t go the way I wanted, and where I disagreed (agreeably) with Rory’s statements).

As rainfall on these adventures often disappears the book soon got back on track and once again ambled into relaxing and enlightening anecdotes.

[opreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good reading this. Always found it interesting when Stewart said that his conservatism stemmed from a love of landscape, I never quite knew or understood what he meant, but now I do. A central message that runs through"Middleland" is that Cumbria's landscape is stark in its beauty due to the interaction of farmers and culture with it, not purely owing to natural essentialist conditions, and through this, a partial critique of some of the overzealous rewilding offers and attempts within the former Penrith and Border constituency.

[Gina Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series of short pieces originally written when Rory Stewart was an MP show a rare quality for keen observation and beautifully described. I love the empathy for the landscape and the Cumbrian people. The exploration of the tensions between political life and the needs of the place and the people. The historical perspective was fascinating. There were reflections on the way individuals can make a difference through purpose and tenacity with community passion projects. These inspired me - To what end I don’t know yet!

[Stuart Moodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on local newspaper column Stewart wrote whilst an MP in Cumbria, these essays give a great snapshot of life in a remote corner of the UK. He shows massive commitment to the people and communities he serves - particularly those in the rural areas - and his constituency is very rural; this should perhaps be required reading for MPs on how to serve your community. I certainly don't agree with everything he says particularly on farming versus wildlife, or his politics but I do admire his commitment to getting things done. There is some repetition but generally a good interesting read.

[Darcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Rory Stewart, I too am ‘mesmerised’ by the different layers of history in any place, region or country. Many of these newspapers pieces have thoughtful reflections about the deeper histories he observed in Cumbria. Stewart’s insatiable curiosity is on display here. The anecdotes about his father illuminate all kinds of personal public and public matters. There are some particularly acute perceptions about service and empire, democracy and life matters. Very enjoyable and interesting read!