{"product_id":"ghosts-of-the-farm-two-womens-journeys-through-time-land-and-community-hardcover","title":"Ghosts of the Farm: Two Women's Journeys Through Time, Land and Community - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eNicola Chester\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the Wainwright Nature Prize Highly Commended author Nicola Chester, a rural narrative between two women in two different eras who both wanted to become farmers. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Nicola Chester will come to be seen as a Nan Shepherd of our time.\"--Nick Acheson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Meaning of Geese\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is the story of Miss White, a woman who lived in the author's village 80 years ago, a pioneer who realised her ambition to become a farmer during the Second World War, and how she worked to become accepted within this community. Nicola Chester, too, dreamed of becoming a farmer but working with horses was the only path open to her. Was it easier for women to become farmers in the 1940s than it is now? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMoving between Nicola's own attempts to work outdoors and Miss White's desire to farm a generation earlier, Nicola explores the parallels between their lives - and the differences. Miss White buys a derelict farm and begins to renovate and modernize it. As ghost (barn) owls flit between these two worlds, Nicola draws connections with farming and rural life in both times, from the role of women in rural communities in the modern day to Miss White's experience in the 1940s. And how those farming modernizations have left the modern day with both a denuded landscape and farming community and a disconnect from nature. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIncreasingly, Nicola's research into past and present interlinks and illuminates her own battles to raise awareness of rural communities, outdoor work and the ongoing loss of farmland birds that were so familiar to Miss White. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An absolutely fascinating insight into women and farming. Nicola Chester really knows how to bring the past alive.\"--Claire Fuller, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Memory of Animals\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eNicola is the author of the award-winning memoir \u003ci\u003eOn Gallows Down; Place, Protest and Belonging\u003c\/i\u003e (Chelsea Green, 2021). One of the early female pioneers of nature writing, she has written a column for the RSPB magazine since 2004 after winning \u003ci\u003eBBC Wildlife Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e's Nature Writer of the Year Award. She is a \u003ci\u003eGuardian \u003c\/i\u003eCountry Diarist and writes for \u003ci\u003eBBC Countryfile Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e as well as other online and print publications\u003ci\u003e. \u003c\/i\u003eNicola's writing also features in several anthologies, most recently \u003ci\u003eWild Service\u003c\/i\u003e, (Bloomsbury, 2024, ed. by Nick Hayes and Jon Moses) \u003ci\u003eUnder the Changing Skies, The Best of The Guardian Country Diary, 2018-2024\u003c\/i\u003e (Faber\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003e2024, ed. Paul Fleckney) and \u003ci\u003eWomen On Nature \u003c\/i\u003e(Unbound, 2021, ed. Katharine Norbury). She wrote for the RSPB's Junior and Youth Magazines for many years, inspiring many of today's young wildlife campaigners. A former school librarian, she is a judge for the inaugural 2025 Climate Fiction Prize, launched at the Hay Festival, and has been a guest speaker and taught sessions for undergraduate, post-graduate and MA Creative Writing students at Cambridge University, Bournemouth University and Sheffield University, and for the MA in Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa. A passionate campaigner and activist for nature, Nicola and her family are tenants in an estate worker's cottage at the heart of the North Wessex Downs in the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.1 x 9.1 x 6.1 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 30, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52702060839245,"sku":"9781915294678","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0927\/3304\/7117\/files\/6q3K2wRcSu9781915294678.webp?v=1762230027","url":"https:\/\/belfastbooks.us\/products\/ghosts-of-the-farm-two-womens-journeys-through-time-land-and-community-hardcover","provider":"belfastbooks.us","version":"1.0","type":"link"}