Villages of Britain

Villages of Britain is the

history of the countryside, told through five hundred of its most

noteworthy settlements. Many of Britain's villages are known for their

loveliness, of course, but their role in shaping the nation over the

centuries is relatively untold, drowned out by the metropolitan bias of

history.



A consummate storyteller, Clive Aslet deftly weaves the worlds of

agriculture, politics, the arts, industry, folklore, science, ecology,

fashion and religion into one irresistible volume. The Bedfordshire

works that a century ago manufactured half a billion bricks a year; the

Cheshire municipality striving to become the country's first

carbon-neutral community; the Derbyshire estate where the cottages

represent the gamut of European architecture; the Gloucestershire

community founded by Tolstoyans, who still live by anarchic principles;

the Leicestershire town where pub walls are embedded with Jurassic-era

fossils; the Morayshire settlement where Hogmanay is celebrated eleven

days late; the Pembrokeshire fishing hamlet that inspired Dylan Thomas;

the Somerset village that was built on the back of the trade in

Peruvian bird droppings; the Suffolk village that is rejecting

modernity by reconstructing a windmill for grinding flour; the Surrey

woodland that fosters Europe's most ancient trees - all these are

places that have made a unique contribution to the narrative of this

country.



Follow Clive Aslet in visiting all five hundred villages, and you will

have experienced the history of these islands from a uniquely rural

perspective.