Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year AwardA superb portrait of the complex imprint the countryside makes on the life of the mind A treasure Doireann N GhrofaIn Rural Hours, Harriet Baker tells the story of three very different women, each of whom moved to the countryside and was forever changed by it. We encounter them at quiet moments pausing to look at an insect on the windowsill jotting down a recipe or digging for potatoes, dirt beneath their nails. Slowly, we start to see transformations unfold Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehmann emerge before us as the passionate, visionary writers we know them to be. Following long periods of creative uncertainty and private disappointment, each of Bakers subjects is invigorated by new landscapes, and the daily trials and small pleasures of making a home slowly, they embark on new experiments in form, in feeling and in living that would resonate throughout the rest of their lives. In the country, each woman finds her path to convalescence and recovery to sexual and political awakening and, above all, to personal freedom and creative flourishing. In graceful, fluid prose, Baker vividly recreates these overlooked episodes, revealing how rural hours defined the lives of three pioneering writers. In the end, she shows, their example is an invitation to us all to recognize the radical and creative potential of rural places, and find new enchantment in the rituals of each day.Warm, perceptive,...

Binding: Hardback;256 pages; Publisher: TBS-Penguin Random House Wholesale; Classification: BGL; Weight: 712 g; Dimensions: 241 x 160 x 30

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