'A wonderful book, beautifully conceived in its movement between different dimensions of a rural working life, Smith's and her family's and all the others, both past and present. And with a seriousness at the heart of it all . So immediate and clearly seen, so gracefully and gently written . It is such a valuable thing' Adam Nicolson, author of Life Between the Tides 'Rebecca Smith's Rural is a thoughtful, moving, honest book that questions what it means to belong to a place when it can never belong to you: a timely and illuminating exploration of the lives of the countryside working class. Rural reminds us that human stories lie at the heart of the land ownership debate--and that a feeling for place traverses the class divide' Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment 'A vital, questing book about the often misunderstood past, hard present-day, and possible futures of rural life in the UK' Dan Richards, author of Outpost and co-author of Holloway 'Too often, the lives of rural people have been overlooked or else romanticised, especially by writers. Not here. With uncommon insight, Rebecca Smith shows the hardship and precarity of rural life, alongside its rewards. She weaves family and social history, and reveals how the inequalities and injustices of the past are still playing out across the land today.

Warm, astute and sincere' Malachy Tallack, author of Sixty Degrees North 'An unsentimental and refreshing study of the countryside . Rebecca strikes an elegant balance between appreciating the beauty of the countryside while also graphically describing working-class country lifestyles that could be brutal, dangerous and squalid. A wonderful debut that has made me rethink the history and geography of our countryside. Highly recommended' Catherine Simpson, author of Truestory and When I Had a Little Sister.