The farm : the story of one family and the English countryside

When Richard Benson was growing up he felt like the village idiot with O'levels' glowing.

School reports aren't much help when you're trying to help a sow give birth, or drive a power harrow in a straight line without getting half the hedgerow stuck in the tines.

He left Yorkshire to work as a journalist in London, but returned when his dad called with the news that they were going to have to sell the family farm, and, in so doing, leave the home and livelihood that the Bensons had worked for generations.

This is not only a moving personal account, but also one that reflects a profound change in rural life.