Greetings from Slightly Foxed HQ where spring is now officially in full swing. The Square is a sea of green again – gone are the barren, muddy patches in the grass; the trees are lush and leafy; and the daffodils which replaced February’s snowdrops have in turn given way to daisies and primroses. There is certainly no better time than the present to pick up A Countryman’s Spring Notebook, our second seasonal selection – curated by Richard Hawking – from the weekly column Adrian Bell wrote from 1950 to 1980 for the Eastern Daily Press.
Each essay in this collection is a little masterpiece, a fleeting moment captured with a painterly eye and the down-to-earth observation of the farmer Bell became and captures beautifully the arrival of Spring in the East Anglian landscape he loved and knew so well. Read one every morning to set you up for the day; it will almost certainly put a real spring in your step (sorry, we couldn’t resist!).
Please read on for an exclusive extract from A Countryman’s Spring Notebook, as well as a selection of the best of Adrian Bell’s writing and to browse other nature classics.
With best wishes, as always, from the SF office staff
Hattie, Jess & Jemima