Shell Country Book

by Geoffrey Grigson

Book by

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Grigson was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He first came to prominence in the 1930s as a poet, then as editor from 1933 of the influential poetry magazine New Verse. A teacher, journalist and broadcaster, later in life he was a noted critic, reviewer (for the New York Review of Books in particular), and compiler of many inventive and innovative anthologies. He published 13 collections of poetry, and wrote on travel, on art (notably works on Samuel Palmer, Wyndham Lewis and Henry Moore), on the English countryside, and on botany, among other subjects.
Geoffrey Grigson's first wife was Frances Galt (who died in 1937 of tuberculosis). With her, he founded New Verse. They had one daughter, Caroline (who was married to the designer Colin Banks). Grigson's second marriage was to Berta (Bertschy) Emma Kunert, who bore him two children, Anna and Lionel Grigson, the jazz musician and educator. Following their divorce, Grigson's third and last marriage was to Jane Grigson, née McIntire (1928–90), the writer on food and cookery. Their daughter is the cookery writer Sophie Grigson.
Geoffrey Grigson in his later life lived partly in Wiltshire, England, and partly in Trôo, a village in the Loir-et-Cher département in France, which features in his poetry. He died in Wiltshire in 1985.

Reviews

[Matthew Eyre]

A real nostalgic read from a time when our seas and rivers ran pure, most villages still had a church, pub school and general store, farming was a largely family run occupation, and youngsters had access to plenty of fresh air, and would set off for a days hike armed only with some potted meat sandwiches (wrapped of course in greaseproof paper) and a butterfly net. Fast forward 60 years and the youngsters would be in their room on TikTok, the rivers are full of raw sewage and most village churches have a service once a week- if they're lucky.