Spitting Feathers

Cornish turkey farmer Fred Gooley and his wife Grace are looking forward to a well-deserved retirement. Their decision to develop a collection of old farm buildings into housing seems an obvious one - it's their financial passport to retirement. But life is very rarely the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. Open the gates to Feathers Farm and you also enter the lives of Fred and Grace and their journey through a dogged fight against the unchecked abuse of 'Establishment' power, bureaucracy and its potential for unpalatable consequences. Inspired by real events, this explosive story is told with humour, a cast of colourful characters including a wise turkey, and some amusing vignettes as the journey takes us from humble beginnings in Cornwall to the corridors of power in Whitehall - with consequences that no one could have anticipated. Retired Cotswold-based town planning consultant Martyn Smith paints an evocative picture of a rural idyll hit by the worst of bureaucratic nightmares, leavened by humour. As an insider drawing on his consultancy experience, he lifts the lid on town planning procedure to provide the reader with an amusing insight into this rarefied and seemingly impenetrable world.