A Year in the Country

by Alison Uttley

While drawing on her memories of childhood in the north counties of England, Alison Uttley shares the sights, sounds, smells and stories of a year in Buckinghamshire.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction

222 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Alison Uttley (17 December 1884 – 7 May 1976), née Alice Jane Taylor, was a prolific British writer of over 100 books. She is now best known for her children's series about Little Grey Rabbit, and Sam Pig.

For more information, please see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_U...

http://www.answers.com/topic/alison-u...

Reviews

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm vacillating between 3.5 and 4*. Not the best of her books, but still! It's one of those in which the author describes every rose in her garden, all the birds that visit it, walks with her Scottie MacDuff - it's a book of little things, which can make for a real doozer-snoozer unless, well, I didn't mind it so much because I really like Alison Uttley. She's the kind of woman I would love to go for walks with. She knows the name of every bird and flower, she can imitate some birdcalls, she loves old things - I would learn so much from even an hour or two in her presence - and this book is the closest I will every get to that. Thankfully she organizes each month into little headings like: Snow in January, The Toad, Three Trees, Hedging, A Deserted Orchard. This gave a feeling of purpose to the book rather than a ramble-bramble of thoughts.

What I like about this book: she talks about spiderwebs, hedgehogs, how the country folk all grew celery in ditches, hunting for shells on a Tenby beach, how her trees look in a strong wind, she has a whole section on the names of the local fields (I love that about England - houses and fields have names), she talks about her favorite smells from childhood, there is even one autumn section where she describes how an oak leaf falls as compared to a Beech or Chestnut leaf, or another where she talks about the local thatchers and how they use different patterns in different counties. I read AYITC with my smartphone in hand - looking up the flowers and birds she mentioned, the villages she visited, it was fun. It's not a book for everyone, but it was a great book for me. And she's written a ton, even aside from her children's books.

The Country Child
The Farm on the Hill
Ambush of Young Days
Country Hoard
Country Things
Carts and Candlesticks
Plowmen's Clocks
Here's a New Day
When All is Done
A Traveller in Time
The Stuff of Dreams
The Swans Fly Over
Buckinghamshire
Wild Honey
Country World: Memories of Childhood
Recipes from and Old Farmhouse
The Button Box and Other Essays
Stories for Christmas
Secret Places and Other Essays
A Ten O'Clock Scholar
A Peck of Gold
Cuckoo in June
Something for Nothing
Our Village: Alison Uttley's Cromford


It's quite possible there are more, too. If anyone has the whole collection or even odds and ends from this list - send them on to me! *pleads on hands and knees*

I neglected to mention the amazing illustrations of C.F Tunnicliffe.