Indie Bookshop Week: Penguin authors celebrate their favourites

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Independent Bookshop Week: Penguin authors celebrate their favourites

The Curious Life of the Cuckoo

The perfect gift for nature lovers, in this beautifully illustrated small format hardback, John Lewis-Stempel delves into the cuckoo's unique behaviour and captivating role in our cultural imagination, in folklore, myth, literature and music, turning his exquisite prose to one of the strangest tales of the countryside. 
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Is there any bird more mysterious than the cuckoo? 
 
It is invariably heard, and not seen. And if seen, it is mistaken for a sharp-winged hawk. The female cuckoo - by a trick that borders on alchemy - is able to disguise its egg as another's. In Greek myth the god Zeus assumed the form of a cuckoo to seduce Hera. 
 
But we forgive the cuckoo its con-artistry, because it is the true herald of spring. It is the bird that uplifts our wintered hearts, with that first two-note 'cuk-koo' unmistakable as it sounds across the country. 
 
In The Curious Life of the Cuckoo, John Lewis-Stempel explains one of nature's greatest enigmas in vivid, lyrical prose, and celebrates this iconic bird. 
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‘That John Lewis-Stempel is one of the best nature writers of his generation is undisputed.’ – Country Life 
 
‘His immense, patient powers of observation – along with a flair for the anthropomorphic – mean he is able to offer a portrait of animal life that's rare in its colour and drama.’ – Observer 
 
‘Engaging, closely-observed and beautiful ... this author’s deep love of the world around him is as inspiring as it is entertaining.’ – Daily Mail 
 
‘John Lewis-Stempel is the hottest nature writer around.’ – Spectator 
 
‘It’s his observation of the natural world – the sight, the sound, the smell of it – that is so memorable. He has a distinctively brisk, muscular style of writing that has a poetic intensity and concision. – Guardian 
 
‘His prose is immaculate’ – Der Spiegel 
 
‘Lewis-Stempel sees and hears things others will never see and hear, and he can write about them as no one else can.’– Daily Mail: Summer Reads

John Lewis-Stempel is a farmer and 'Britain's finest living nature writer' (The Times). His books include the Sunday Times bestsellers Woodston, The Running Hare and The Wood. He is the only person to have won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing twice, with Meadowland and Where Poppies Blow. In 2016 he was named Magazine Columnist of the Year for his column in Country Life. He farms cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. Traditionally.

Is there any bird more mysterious than the cuckoo? 
 
It is invariably heard, and not seen. And if seen, it is mistaken for a sharp-winged hawk. The female cuckoo - by a trick that borders on alchemy - is able to disguise its egg as another's. In Greek myth the god Zeus assumed the form of a cuckoo to seduce Hera. 
 
But we forgive the cuckoo its con-artistry, because it is the true herald of spring. It is the bird that uplifts our wintered hearts, with that first two-note 'cuk-koo' unmistakable as it sounds across the country. 
 
In The Curious Life of the Cuckoo, John Lewis-Stempel explains one of nature's greatest enigmas in vivid, lyrical prose, and celebrates this iconic bird.

A year in rural France

La Vie

AN INDIE BESTSELLER 
 
'It reminded me all over again of why I threw up everything for the magic of La Belle France' Carol Drinkwater, author of The Olive Farm 
 
'An utterly beguiling immersion in La France Profonde, keenly observed and beautifully told' Felicity Cloake, author of One More Croissant for the Road 
 
For fans of Peter Mayle, 'Britain's finest living nature writer' takes the plunge and buys an old farmhouse deep in the French countryside - a perfect slice of sunny escapist joy from the perennial Sunday Times bestseller. 
 
The Charente: roofs of red terracotta tiles, bleached-white walls, windows shuttered against the blaring sun. The baker does his rounds in his battered little white van with a hundred warm baguettes in the back, while a cat picks its way past a Romanesque church, the sound of bells skipping across miles of rolling, glorious countryside. 
 
For many years a farmer in England, John Lewis-Stempel yearned once again to live in a landscape where turtle doves purr and nightingales sing, as they did almost everywhere in his childhood. He wanted to be self-sufficient, to make his own wine and learn the secrets of truffle farming. And so, buying an old honey-coloured limestone house with bright blue shutters, the Lewis-Stempels began their new life as peasant farmers. 
 
Over that first year, Lewis-Stempel fell in love with the French countryside, from the wild boar that trot past the kitchen window to the glow-worms and citronella candles that flicker in the evening garden. Although it began as a practical enterprise, it quickly became an affair of the heart: of learning to bite the end off the morning baguette; taking two hours for lunch; in short, living the good life - or as the French say, La Vie.

The Charente: roofs of red terracotta tiles, bleached-white walls, windows shuttered against the blaring sun. The baker does his rounds in his battered little white van with a hundred warm baguettes in the back, while a cat picks its way past a Romanesque church, the sound of bells skipping across miles of rolling, glorious countryside. 
 
For many years a farmer in England, John Lewis-Stempel yearned once again to live in a landscape where turtle doves purr and nightingales sing, as they did almost everywhere in his childhood. He wanted to be self-sufficient, to make his own wine and learn the secrets of truffle farming. And so, buying an old honey-coloured limestone house with bright blue shutters, the Lewis-Stempels began their new life as peasant farmers. 
 
Over that first year, Lewis-Stempel fell in love with the French countryside, from the wild boar that trot past the kitchen window to the glow-worms and citronella candles that flicker in the evening garden. Although it began as a practical enterprise, it quickly became an affair of the heart: of learning to bite the end off the morning baguette; taking two hours for lunch; in short, living the good life - or as the French say, La Vie.

The Biography of An English Farm – The Sunday Times Bestseller

Woodston

One of Britain's finest nature writers...Lewis-Stempel maps an intriguing journey through his ancestral farmland.

Hardback Book of the Month: John Lewis-Stempel has ... an eye for vivid detail who creates evocative images as he shares his knowledge and love of the countryside.

From a master of storytelling... Other writers have written about the history of agriculture ... but this writer is the master, because his book is not just a scholarly treatise. It is about the history of agriculture, yes, but it is a personal account, written with a great love of the subject. It is the 'biography' of a farm and the English landscape, written through the eyes of a man who is a true wordsmith, knowledgeable on his subject and lover of the natural world. It is these enthusiasms which make it so readable ... [Lewis-Stempel is] a writer who is without equal in his field.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
 'Lewis-Stempel is one of our finest nature writers ... He writes with delicate observation and authority, giving us in Woodston a book teeming with fascinating details, anecdotes and penetrating insights into the real cost of our denatured countryside.' - Sunday Times 
 
 'The English countryside is 'a work of human art, done by the many and the nameless' and John Lewis-Stempel wanted to celebrate it. He has succeeded admirably.' - Daily Mail 
 _________________ 
 In the beginning was the earth... 
 
 From the Paleozoic volcanoes that stained its soil, to the Saxons who occupied it, to the Tudors who traded its wool, to the Land Girls of wartime, John Lewis-Stempel charts a sweeping, lyrical history of Woodston: the quintessential English farm. 
 
 With his combined skills of farmer and historian, Lewis-Stempel digs deep into written records, the memories of relatives, and the landscape itself to celebrate the farmland his family have been bound to for millennia. Through Woodston's life, we feel the joyful arrival of oxen ploughing; we see pigs rootling in the medieval apple orchard; and take in the sharp, drowsy fragrance of hops on Edwardian air. He draws upon his wealth of historical knowledge and his innate sense of place to create a passionate, fascinating biography of farming in England. 
 
 Woodston not only reminds us of the rural riches buried beneath our feet but of our shared roots that tie us to the land.

The story of our most misunderstood farmyard animal

The Sheep’s Tale

'An important book on several levels... Read a few sentences out loud, wherever you are.' Rosamund Young 
 
Everybody thinks they know what sheep are like: they're stupid, noisy, cowardly ('lambs to the slaughter'), and they're 'sheepwrecking' the environment. 
 
Or maybe not. Contrary to popular prejudice, sheep are among the smartest animals in the farmyard, fiercely loyal, forming long and lasting friendships. Sheep, farmed properly, are boons to biodiversity. They also happen to taste good and their fleeces warm us through the winter - indeed, John Lewis-Stempel's family supplied the wool for Queen Elizabeth's 'hose'. 
 
Observing the traditional shepherd's calendar, The Sheep's Tale is a loving biography of ewes, lambs, and rams through the seasons. Lewis-Stempel tends to his flock with deep-rooted wisdom, ethical consideration, affection, and humour. This book is a tribute to all the sheep he has reared and sheared - from gregarious Action Ram to sweet Maid Marion. In his inimitable style, he shares the tales that only a shepherd can tell.

I found this book not only pleasingly escapist but also nostalgic... the writing is vivid, lyrical and seductive... There's a romance to shepherding that is entirely absent from pig and poultry farming.

The Sheep's Tale is an important book on several levels... Read a few sentences out loud, wherever you are; everyone should know more about sheep.

Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows

A book of brilliant authenticity. Lewis-Stempel's affection for, and empathy with, sheep springs off every page.

Sally Coulthard, author of A Short History of the World According to Sheep

John Lewis Stempel's paean of praise for our wonderful and unique breeds of British sheep ought to be widely read. Sheep and pastoral farming are coming under increasingly strident onslaught and they will need every ounce of support they can get if they are to survive into the future.

Philip Walling, author of Counting Sheep

This little book is both delightful and useful.

An insider's account of the gentle art of shepherding.. . a paean to a lost era, when shepherds watched their flocks by night and regarded them with respectful understanding, rather than exploiting them as mere commodities... delivered with engaging wit... intelligently argued and full of surprising facts.

[Lewis-Stempel is] a superb nature writer... Anyone who tells you that these creatures are stupid is pulling the wool over your eyes.

A warm-hearted and deeply personal biography of ewes, rams and lambs... His affection for his flock shines through these shepherding tales.

Everybody thinks they know what sheep are like: they're stupid, noisy, cowardly ('lambs to the slaughter'), and they're 'sheepwrecking' the environment. 
 
Or maybe not. Contrary to popular prejudice, sheep are among the smartest animals in the farmyard, fiercely loyal, forming long and lasting friendships. Sheep, farmed properly, are boons to biodiversity. They also happen to taste good and their fleeces warm us through the winter - indeed, John Lewis-Stempel's family supplied the wool for Queen Elizabeth's 'hose'. 
 
Observing the traditional shepherd's calendar, The Sheep's Tale is a loving biography of ewes, lambs, and rams through the seasons. Lewis-Stempel tends to his flock with deep-rooted wisdom, ethical consideration, affection, and humour. This book is a tribute to all the sheep he has reared and sheared - from gregarious Action Ram to sweet Maid Marion. In his inimitable style, he shares the tales that only a shepherd can tell.

Four Journeys into Britain After Dark

Nightwalking

'Britain's finest living nature writer' THE TIMES 
 
'Lewis-Stempel's greatest gift remains his prose, with all its vividness and energy' THE DAILY MAIL 
 
'The hottest nature writer around' THE SPECTATOR 
 
At night, the normal rules of Nature do not apply. In the night-wood I have met a badger coming the other way, tipped my cap, said hello. The animals do not expect us humans to be abroad in the dark, which is their time, when the world still belongs to them. 
 
That was in winter. The screaming of a tawny owl echoed off the bare trees. For all of our street-lamp civilization, you can still hear the call of the wild. If, if, you go out after the decline of the day... 
 
As the human world settles down each evening, nocturnal animals prepare to take back the countryside. Taking readers on four walks through the four seasons, acclaimed nature writer and farmer John Lewis-Stempel reveals a world bursting with life and normally hidden from view. Out beyond the cities, it is still possible to see the night sky full of stars, or witness a moonbow, an arch of white light in the heavens. 
 
It is time for us to leave our lairs and go tramping. To join our fellow creatures of the night.

This is a small book, yet it conveys memorably the magnitude and majesty of its subject - a charming blend of nature diary, sound archive and scent library. It can even be seen as a kind of dictionary in which, like Byron's nightwandering Manfred, we can learn 'the language of another world'.

He describes the allure of an after dark stroll with typical poetic aplomb...evocative and encouraging

A beautiful little hardback book and wonderful stocking filler for the nature-lover in your life

A worthy addition to a delightful and uplifting series

At night, the normal rules of nature do not apply. In the night wood I have met a badger coming the other way, tipped my cap, said hello. The animals do not expect us humans to be abroad in the dark, which is their time, when the world still belongs to them. 
 
As the human world settles down each evening, nocturnal animals prepare to take back the countryside. Hares box in the ploughfield and bats vortex overhead. Fox cubs tumble in the glow of the waxing moon. 
 
Away from the streetlamps of 'civilization' it is still possible to see jewel-like stars hanging in black velvet skies or witness a moonbow, an arch of white light in the heavens. 
 
Nightwalking takes readers on four atmospheric walks through the seasons. In sparkling prose, John Lewis-Stempel draws us into the shadowlands and reveals a world bursting with life and normally hidden from view. 
 
It is time for us to leave our lairs and go walking. To join the creatures of the night. 
 
£9.99

The Soaring Life of the Lark

John Lewis-Stempel is a farmer and 'Britain's finest living nature writer' (The Times). His books include the Sunday Times bestsellers The Running Hare and The Wood. He is the only person to have won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing twice, with Meadowland and Where Poppies Blow. In 2016 he was named Magazine Columnist of the Year for his column in Country Life. He farms cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. Traditionally.

"How to describe the ecstatic song of larks? How the writers and poets have tried..." 
 
Skylarks are the heralds of our countryside. Their music is the quintessential sound of spring. The spirit of English pastoralism, they inspire poets, composers and farmers alike. In the trenches of World War I they were a reminder of the chattering meadows of home. 
 
Perhaps you were up with the lark, or as happy as one. History has seen us poeticise and musicise the bird, but also capture and eat them. We watch as they climb the sky, delight in their joyful singing, and yet we harm them too. 
 
 The Soaring life of the Lark explores the music and poetry; the breath-taking heights and struggle to survive of one of Britain's most iconic songbirds. 
 
PRAISE FOR JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL 
 
'Britain's finest living nature writer' - The Times 
 
'Lewis-Stempel is a fourth-generation farmer gifted with an extraordinary ability to write prose that soars and sings' - Daily Mail

John Lewis-Stempel

By our very finest nature writer ... a pastoral symphony, a masterpiece, and a very English love letter.

In an age when it seems that nothing has been left unscathed by our bulldozing technological advances, John Lewis-Stempel offers a breath of fresh (and natural) air.

It is now expected of the modern nature writer to draw together landscape, wildlife, history and culture, but few – if any – do it as deftly as Lewis-Stempel does here … There is still a place for this kind of assured and expert countryside writing. Not just a place, but acres of room.

BOOK OF THE MONTH: erudite and highly informative …packed with humorous, quirky details…a brilliant gift for anyone who loves the countryside.

Full of evocative detail, this celebration of nature and place is bursting with historical details and lyrical observations of wildlife and landscape.

He combines Jefferies’s way of looking closely with W. H. Hudson’s wide-roaming curiosity. That he champions them and the likes of ‘BB’ and the Revd Gilbert White in these pages is no surprise. All of them, like the author, were true country souls. This is a book to sit on the shelf beside theirs and not be overshadowed.

This extraordinarily fine writer tours England with an eye for every living thing. A work of beauty, deeply informed, a fantastic gift.

What we have here is the best of John Lewis-Stempel and the best of his vision of England.

A richly enjoyable treasure trove for any nature lover. Gilbert White for the 21st century.

No-one comes close to Lewis-Stempel’s ability to paint the English landscape in words. Maddeningly brilliant.

Sally Coulthard, author of A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects

Lewis-Stempel is the most splendid company as he stomps and meanders through England. He's congenial, lyrical, unsentimental and smart, with a rare eye both for the big picture and the tiny, telling detail. Marvellous!

Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild

The book I've been waiting for, by my favourite contemporary nature writer. John Lewis-Stempel is that rarest of breeds, a writer on nature who is fully immersed in the natural world. England is a treasure from start to finish.

No other writer comes close to Stempel’s mixture of down-to-earth practical observation, playful lyricism, and sheer delight in the endless variety of our English countryside.

Christopher Somerville, author of Ships of Heaven and Walking the Bones of Britain

With charm, patient observation and the gift of beautiful words, John Lewis-Stempel braids history, science and folklore, revealing how English habitats have been formed by the interplay of nature and the human hand. England is a loving call to experience afresh the worlds-within-worlds on our doorstep.

[Prof.] Jonathan Drori [CBE] Author of Around the World in 80 Trees and Around the World in 80 Plants

It is rare indeed to find a writer who combines deep knowledge with such acute sensitivity to the power of words. England reads like a masterclass in how to look and listen – and it’s a wonderfully uplifting evocation of the treasures to be had if we attend to those things.

Edward Stourton, broadcaster and author of Confessions, Cruel Crossing and Auntie's War

England draws you into its folds and flow, into the streams, estuaries, and woodlands it evokes, with an almost incantatory power. It’s a book about nature, but also about the art of noticing, writing, precision, and cadence — from an author at the absolute height of his powers.

Sophy Roberts, author of Lost Pianos of Siberia

John Lewis-Stempel is simply the best. If England is truly to be the swansong of his extraordinary career (can somebody please, please ask him to reconsider?) then I cannot think of a more wonderful ending. It is lyrical, witty, companionable, knowledgeable, insightful, gripping, detailed, moving and beautiful. In short it is perfect nature writing from an undisputed master.

Tom Moorhouse, author of Elegy for a River and Ghosts in the Hedgerow

In his distinctive lyrical prose the nation’s finest living nature writer explores the many different habitats to be found in the English countryside, and its rich diversity of flora and fauna. From bluebells to badgers and rock pools to beaches, all of England’s natural life is here – and exquisitely described.

A fine new piece of nature writing… … richly informed and beautifully written.

A Natural History

England’s landscape is iconic – a tapestry of distinctive habitats that together make up a country unique for its rich diversity of flora and fauna. Concentrating on twelve habitats, John Lewis-Stempel leads us from estuary to park, chalk downland to woodland , river to field, village to moor, lake to heath, fen to coastal cliffs, in a book that is unquestionably his magnum opus. 
 
Referencing beloved great writers in whose footsteps he treads – Gilbert White, John Clare, W. H. Hudson, Richard Jefferies, Edward Thomas – and combining breathtakingly beautiful prose with detailed wildlife observation, botanical fact and ancient folklore, Lewis-Stempel immerses himself in each place, discovering their singular atmosphere, the play of the seasons; the feel of the wind in midwinter; the sounds of daybreak; how twilight settles. Each one – whether managed park or wild moor, plunging cliff or man-made Broads – has also shaped human life, forming our idea of ourselves and our sense of what ‘England’ means. 
 
England: A Natural History is the definitive volume on the English landscape, and the capstone of John Lewis-Stempel’s nature writing. 
........................................................................................................ 
 
‘No-one comes close to Lewis-Stempel’s ability to paint the English landscape in words. Maddeningly brilliant.’ - Sally Coulthard, author of A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects

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John Lewis-Stempel

Praise for England

By our very finest nature writer ... a pastoral symphony, a masterpiece, and a very English love letter.

Britain's finest nature writer

In an age when it seems that nothing has been left unscathed by our bulldozing technological advances, John Lewis-Stempel offers a breath of fresh (and natural) air.

By our very finest nature writer ... a pastoral symphony, a masterpiece, and a very English love letter.

Britain's finest nature writer

In an age when it seems that nothing has been left unscathed by our bulldozing technological advances, John Lewis-Stempel offers a breath of fresh (and natural) air.

By our very finest nature writer ... a pastoral symphony, a masterpiece, and a very English love letter.

Britain's finest nature writer

In an age when it seems that nothing has been left unscathed by our bulldozing technological advances, John Lewis-Stempel offers a breath of fresh (and natural) air.

Books by John Lewis-Stempel

Articles featuring John Lewis-Stempel

Independent Bookshop Week: Penguin authors celebrate their favourites

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