Ghosts of the Farm

‘Nicola Chester is the John Clare of our time.’
Guy Shrubsole, author of The Lost Rainforests of Britain

‘This is a rich and riveting book, and I didn’t want it to end. Interweaving the fascinating story of a woman farmer in the Second World War with the author’s own story as she attempts to advocate for a nature-depleted countryside, it’s a gentle battle cry – heartwarming, melancholy and vital.’
Lissa Evans, author of Small Bomb at Dimperley

‘A wonderfully evocative account of a fascinating and until now untold story, uniting two women’s passion for farming and the English countryside.’
Stephen Moss, author of Ten Birds That Changed the World

‘Nicola’s evocation of Miss White truly haunts me. Energetic, enigmatic and with one foot poised over a chasm of change, Ghosts of the Farm brings joy and thoughtfulness, litanies of horses’ names and Land Girls hoeing in their underwear. The woman farmer from wartime and the woman writer from the present, whose stories haunt this book, share a practicality, frustrations, hopes and fears for the future of the landscape they love.’
Alison Brackenbury, poet and broadcaster

‘This captivating dual-stranded memoir puts rural women firmly in their place: right at the heart of the farm. Nicola Chester and her indomitable predecessor Miss Julia White are unforgettable guides to a changed and changing countryside.’
Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley

‘Nicola Chester will come to be seen as a Nan Shepherd of our time. She knows the land, and its lives, with a knowing that can only come from a million barefoot steps across it. She loves the land with a tenacity that stems only from having fought and cried hot tears for it. And she writes with a clarity that aches on the page. Ghosts of the Farm is devastatingly good. Hairs-on-the-back-of-my-neck good.’
Nick Acheson, author of The Meaning of Geese

‘No one, but no one, writes like Nicola Chester. Her blend of grit, sensitivity, integrity, wisdom and artistry is unique. Ghosts of the Farm is a clear-eyed view of the social and ecological thinning of English rural life, but it’s also a breath of oxygen to its resilient embers of sustainability and equitability. A bittersweet and timely tonic for the soul of British farming.’
Amy-Jane Beer, author of The Flow

‘A heartening, haunted and beautifully written book that is a powerful paean to rural life and working the land.’
Rob Cowen, author of The North Road

‘Through Nicola’s experiences, the heartbeats of ghosts are revived and woven into the present and future, reminding us that we are all rooted to the earth we share, live and eventually become. Nicola is a special writer: her words the tips of her consciousness and the core of her bones. Ghosts of the Farm transports me through time while inviting me to embrace every single moment and the wild and tame lives we share our territories with.’
Hannah Bourne-Taylor, author of Nature Needs You

‘Ghosts of the Farm is much more than a tale of two women struggling to become farmers while battling prejudice against their gender. Written in exquisite prose, it is a story celebrating the glory of the countryside and country living, a story of struggles and triumphs, in times of war and peace. I found myself rooting for both heroines.’
Rhys Bowen, internationally best-selling author of The Tuscan Child, The Venice Sketchbook and other historical novels, as well as the Royal Spyness and Molly Murphy mystery series

‘An absolutely fascinating insight into women and farming. Nicola Chester really knows how to bring the past alive.’
Claire Fuller, author of The Memory of Animals

‘Chester writes about nature beautifully, but she’s also doing something more important. She’s trying to unpick how the countryside has, in many ways, got to where it is now. It’s nature writing, politics, social history and the best kind of fireside story telling – all skilfully knitted into one.’
Sally Coulthard, author of A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects

‘Chester’s account of being a teenage stable girl will resonate . . . [and she] is at her best when immersed in rural detail, whether the thunderstones kept in the Manor House dairy to stop the milk from curdling . . . or when revelling in the evocative equine vocabulary of Chifney bits, curry combs and surcingles.’
Country Living