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9781846892974

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Separated into the four seasons, the reader will move through the year with Johnny's own knowledge and various stories and experiences to guide them. Not only does it focus on country sports, it looks at man's relationship with nature and how things have changed for the better. His affection for the countryside and all it has to offer shines through and will delight any reader. -- Mary Jarwood * The Countryman's Weekly * This book is simply brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it from cover to cover. Sir Johnny's encyclopaedia like knowledge of most things relating to the British countryside and his articulate and eloquent writing style, firmly deposits this book into my couldn't put it down category. Highly recommended for country folk of all nationalities, British social historians, nature lovers and urbanites with an enquiring mind. -- Gary Creighton * British Country Sports * From cover to cover this highly readable book was rapidly digested in just over a day. As I know from frequent evenings in his company, Johnny Scott is an exceptionally fine teller and re-teller of tales and anecdotes...If you are a countryman by birth, inclination or persuasion, buy this book, you will love it. If not, buy the book anyway, you might learn something. -- Peter Brook * Baily's Hunting Directory * This is not a soapbox piece about our changing landscape and culture, but a balanced and quiet observation of a landscape and nation in flux.... This book attests to Scott's deep understanding of the British countryside. -- Hunter Workman Meeting people like...Sir Johnny Scott makes you realise that these individuals have a wealth of knowledge that is impossible to match in the anti-hunting/anti shooting world... provides some very useful arguments to counter the barrage of nonsense produced by those who know precisely what they want changed in the countryside but have little idea about what might follow. -- Jim Barrington * Countryman's Weekly/Countryfile Live * Forget the Met Office. It's the ...behaviour of the hefted hill ewes out on the moor... you need to watch for incoming snow. A definite read before the Boxing Day walk - it'll answer all the children's questions... [Johnny's] passion and knowledge for rural life absolutely shine in this book. [His] writing is very accessible and engaging, and really quite poetic in places. Writing about Christmas week, he says: I love the bleak beauty... the eerie sound of a great multitude of geese riding from their roost in a lapis lazuli dawn. -- Annette Shaw * Devon Life *

Separated into the four seasons, the reader will move through the year with Johnny's own knowledge and various stories and experiences to guide them. Not only does it focus on country sports, it looks at man's relationship with nature and how things have changed for the better. His affection for the countryside and all it has to offer shines through and will delight any reader. -- Mary Jarwood * The Countryman's Weekly * From cover to cover this highly readable book was rapidly digested in just over a day. As I know from frequent evenings in his company, Johnny Scott is an exceptionally fine teller and re-teller of tales and anecdotes... In this 230-page beautifully produced casebound volume the reader is taken through subjects as diverse as the origin of Easter... In these few words I have tried to gives you a reason to buy, borrow, acquire, give or just find a way of reading this latest work from Johnny Scott that is beyond 'It's a great book buy it!' But that, in essence, is the core message of this review. The book is easy to read in one sitting but in reality is designed to be picked up and read time after time, as neither the stories, nor the author's ability to convey a tale to his readers, gets old. If you are a countryman by birth, inclination or persuasion, buy this book -- you will love it. If not, buy the book anyway -- you might learn something. -- Peter Brook * Baily's Hunting Directory * This book, a compilation of articles written by Sir Johnny Scott for The Field magazine is simply brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it from cover to cover. Sir Johnny's encyclopaedia like knowledge of most things relating to the British countryside and his articulate and eloquent writing style, firmly deposits this book into my couldn't put it down category. From his most descriptive writing, it is quite apparent that Sir Johnny's expertise has been gained from having lived the hard country life of a sheep farmer, seeing nature's wonders and worries unfold each year and experiencing first hand, the many weird and wonderful customs, traditions and social activities that at best might be described as being quirky and unique to the British countryside and at worst, unfathomable and plain balmy. Divided into the four seasons of the year, The Countryman - Through the Seasons definitely has something for everyone. The subjects covered are as diverse as they are interesting. As well as the illuminating article on toads, I particularly enjoyed the author's Introduction which goes into some detail explaining why post-WWII Britain (urban and rural dwellers) were so dependent on the free nutrition that the countryside supplied to all, his life as a young lad roaming nature's wonderland and the detrimental government policies of agricultural intensification of the 1960's and 70's which led to enormous swathes of various natural ecosystems being uprooted, drained and ploughed up. The latter playing a significant part in the development of the ever-increasing divide that exists now between urban and rural communities in Britain. Highly recommended for country folk of all nationalities, British social historians, nature lovers and urbanites with an enquiring mind. -- Gary Creighton * British Country Sports *

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Sir (Walter) John Scott, Bt. MFH. Sir Johnny (as he is better known) is an author, natural historian, broadcaster, columnist, countryside campaigner, artisan snuff manufacturer and retired hill farmer. A lifetime devotee of the countryside and its sports, he is President, Master, Director and member to an extraordinary list of countryside organisations.

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