Description
Book SynopsisThis is the 45th Anniversary Edition of The Decline of an English Village.
When The Decline of an English Village was first published in 1974, its appearance was greeted with immediate critical acclaim. As a young writer, born into declining village life, Robin Page’s message simultaneously struck a chord and sounded a warning.
Now, after forty-five years, it reappears with a new and updated introduction, in which political activist Robin Page exposes greed, political ineptitude, and social and environmental indifference as the driving forces behind the deterioration of village life and the communities around it.
Robin Page transports readers back to a time when villages were founded on the value of community, and when people still worked the land in the traditional sense. He reflects and ruminates on his own experiences of rural life, raising sensitive topics, such as the intensification of farming, over-population, and environmental degradation in some of England’s most beloved places. Robin shares his concern for the alarming loss of wildlife in England, and offers his own perspective on what he perceives to be the most pressing issues. His passion for English tradition, reflected through his involvement with the Countryside Restoration Trust, radiates from within the pages of this book, along with his enthusiasm for preserving the countryside and its wildlife.
Throughout his life, Robin has observed dramatic changes in the way people live their lives. It’s in this book that he reiterates the tragedy behind a countryside increasingly misused and abused in the name of urbanisation and industrialisation.
Trade ReviewRobin Page is a national treasure. This whiskery and rebarbative countryman, now in his mid seventies, has campaigned tirelessly for the cause of traditional rural life... he has shown, admirably, what even a single individual can do off his own bat by founding the Countryside Restoration Trust.
The Decline of an English Village was one of Mr.Page's early books. Written 45 years ago, and now reissued with a new last chapter, it is a classic. * Country Life *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Home and Farm 2. The Village 3. God 4. Sex and Violence 5. The School 6. The Brook 7. The Shoot 8. Feathers and Feet 9. Second Thoughts 10. All Change 11. Thirty Years On 12. Forty-Five Years On Countryside Restoration Trust
