In the original dustsheet. Grey cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

Villages of Britain is the history of the countryside, told through five hundred of its most noteworthy settlements. Many of Britain’s villages are known for their loveliness, of course, but their role in shaping the nation over the centuries is relatively untold, drowned out by the metropolitan bias of history. A consummate storyteller, Clive Aslet deftly weaves the worlds of agriculture, politics, the arts, industry, folklore, science, ecology, fashion and religion into one irresistible volume. The Bedfordshire works that a century ago manufactured half a billion bricks a year; the Cheshire municipality striving to become the country’s first carbon-neutral community; the Derbyshire estate where the cottages represent the gamut of European architecture; the Gloucestershire community founded by Tolstoyans, who still live by anarchic principles; the Leicestershire town where pub walls are embedded with Jurassic-era fossils; the Morayshire settlement where Hogmanay is celebrated eleven days late; the Pembrokeshire fishing hamlet that inspired Dylan Thomas; the Somerset village that was built on the back of the trade in Peruvian bird droppings; the Suffolk village that is rejecting modernity by reconstructing a windmill for grinding flour; the Surrey woodland that fosters Europe’s most ancient trees – all these are places that have made a unique contribution to the narrative of this country. Follow Clive Aslet in visiting all five hundred villages, and you will have experienced the history of these islands from a uniquely rural perspective.

Reviews:`

• Buildings can be saved for all time, but villages need saving every year. They need their champions. Mr Aslet has given them a sound weapon.’ –Country Life

• `a delight to dip into…an exploration but also a celebration of our countryside’ –Eastern Daily Press

• ‘This joyous collection explains why rural life matters to the British psyche’ –Sunday Telegraph

• ‘”Villages of Britain” is a deliciously browsable guidebook as well as a glittering store of anecdote and esoteric information.’ — The Wall St. Journal

• ‘The feeling you are left with after reading Clive Aslet’s monumental guide to rural Britain is of having been shown a great deal while remaining aware that this is hardly the whole story… a thoughtful, witty guide.’ — The Guardian

Clive Aslet (born 15 February 1955) is a writer on British architecture and life, and a campaigner on countryside and other issues. He was for many years editor of Country Life magazine. He is Visiting Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge and publisher of Triglyph Books. Aslet was educated at King’s College School in Wimbledon and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he earned a degree in the history of architecture. After graduating, he joined Country Life magazine in 1977 as an architectural writer, becoming architectural editor in 1984, deputy editor in 1989, and editor-in-chief in 1993. In 1997 he was named British Society of Magazine Editors’ Editor of the Year. After 13 years as editor-in-chief, from 13 March 2006, Aslet left and took on a newly created role of editor-at-large, leading Country Life’s public relations activities and acting as an editorial consultant and writer for the magazine, as well as writing more books and doing freelance articles for newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, and The Sunday Times, and broadcasts on radio and television current affairs programmes including Newsnight.