Invitation to Book Party 28th June 2008
The paperback edition of SOAF member Ian Walthew's 'A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream' was published in May 2008 by Phoenix.
On Saturday 28th June, 2008, The Abbey Bookshop, 29 rue de la Parcheminerie, 75005 Paris (Metro: St Michel/Cluny la Sorbonne) is hosting a party themed 'A Taste of the Country' where Ian will be signing copies of his book; more importantly wine will be flowing, served with cheeses and saucissons from where Ian lives in the Auvergne. SOAF members are welcome but are kindly requested to drop an email to info@ianwalthew.com ASAP if they intend to come, and indicating any guests they are bringing with them.
On Monday 30th June, Ian will be doing an evening reading at Shakespeare & Co.
All SOAF members are also welcome to come along.
Ian's book is perhaps best captured by some of the reviews he has received.
PRAISE FOR 'A PLACE IN MY COUNTRY'
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, hardcover July 2007; Phoenix paperback May 1, 2008)
'Stressed city couple seeks slower life in Cotswolds idyll'. The premise is so familiar there's even a predictably technical term for it: 'downshifting'. Yet it's hard to think in those terms about A Place in My Country, given the care with which Ian Walthew has skirted all the sprung traps of nostalgia and sentiment…Avoiding the usual bland elegy for the rustic and redemptive, his book is a valuable memoir, both personal and social, a meditation on belonging in one of many Englands.’
The Observer
'Far from being an idealistic paen to the English countryside, the book becomes a hard-edged and moving account of life rural Britain today.'
Sunday Times
'a poignant portrait of country life....the book could have been a rollicking, laugh-a-minute riff on ignorant townies having to ask what exactly a heifer is. There are certainly some fine comic episodes.. but it quickly turns into something more sombre - and more interesting...His beautifully written book is an elegy for an England that is dying, or at least in terminal decline.'
Daily Telegraph
‘compelling and often deeply moving… Walthew’s own struggle with age-old issues of identity, friendship, community and a place to call home are fresh, sympathetic and never trying…a page-turner’
Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall
‘an affecting and inspiring memoir. What sets it apart from others of its ilk is the author’s enviable immunity to cliché and his determination to love his homeland better than he used to. His elegiac account of relearning how to be an Englishman should be required reading for anyone who claims to know or love this country.’
Financial Times
‘Funny, touching and ultimately very moving, this is a beautiful, unsentimental account of a personal loss that is reflected in the rapidly changing texture of life in rural England.’
Sunday Telegraph
‘Even peripheral characters…really come to life; as does the beauty of the Cotswolds and the harsh realities it conceals. A Place in My Country is an edifying consideration of the English countryside, its rich history and its attempt to adapt in today’s world’
Times Literary Supplement
‘I have been reading about the British countryside all my life but this is the first post-modern take on a national asset so routinely taken for granted. Author Ian Walthew takes a 12-inch plough to the cosy complacency that so many apply to the subject and reveals that 21st century rural life is not a place for the genteel - in a corner of Gloucestershire most commonly viewed by outsiders from their 4x4s as they hurry to overpriced weekend retreats, he finds a farming heartbeat that is proud and defiant, defended by a cast of characters that outshine The Archers. A revelation of a book.’
Tim Butcher, Author of Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart
(Galaxy Book of the Year 2008, 3rd Prize Winner)
‘A riveting read....a warning to newcomers about the dangers of upsetting village hierarchies and sensibilities'
Country Life
‘One of “The Top Ten Summer Holiday Books You Must Own”
Mail on Sunday
On Saturday 28th June, 2008, The Abbey Bookshop, 29 rue de la Parcheminerie, 75005 Paris (Metro: St Michel/Cluny la Sorbonne) is hosting a party themed 'A Taste of the Country' where Ian will be signing copies of his book; more importantly wine will be flowing, served with cheeses and saucissons from where Ian lives in the Auvergne. SOAF members are welcome but are kindly requested to drop an email to info@ianwalthew.com ASAP if they intend to come, and indicating any guests they are bringing with them.
On Monday 30th June, Ian will be doing an evening reading at Shakespeare & Co.
All SOAF members are also welcome to come along.
Ian's book is perhaps best captured by some of the reviews he has received.
PRAISE FOR 'A PLACE IN MY COUNTRY'
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, hardcover July 2007; Phoenix paperback May 1, 2008)
'Stressed city couple seeks slower life in Cotswolds idyll'. The premise is so familiar there's even a predictably technical term for it: 'downshifting'. Yet it's hard to think in those terms about A Place in My Country, given the care with which Ian Walthew has skirted all the sprung traps of nostalgia and sentiment…Avoiding the usual bland elegy for the rustic and redemptive, his book is a valuable memoir, both personal and social, a meditation on belonging in one of many Englands.’
The Observer
'Far from being an idealistic paen to the English countryside, the book becomes a hard-edged and moving account of life rural Britain today.'
Sunday Times
'a poignant portrait of country life....the book could have been a rollicking, laugh-a-minute riff on ignorant townies having to ask what exactly a heifer is. There are certainly some fine comic episodes.. but it quickly turns into something more sombre - and more interesting...His beautifully written book is an elegy for an England that is dying, or at least in terminal decline.'
Daily Telegraph
‘compelling and often deeply moving… Walthew’s own struggle with age-old issues of identity, friendship, community and a place to call home are fresh, sympathetic and never trying…a page-turner’
Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall
‘an affecting and inspiring memoir. What sets it apart from others of its ilk is the author’s enviable immunity to cliché and his determination to love his homeland better than he used to. His elegiac account of relearning how to be an Englishman should be required reading for anyone who claims to know or love this country.’
Financial Times
‘Funny, touching and ultimately very moving, this is a beautiful, unsentimental account of a personal loss that is reflected in the rapidly changing texture of life in rural England.’
Sunday Telegraph
‘Even peripheral characters…really come to life; as does the beauty of the Cotswolds and the harsh realities it conceals. A Place in My Country is an edifying consideration of the English countryside, its rich history and its attempt to adapt in today’s world’
Times Literary Supplement
‘I have been reading about the British countryside all my life but this is the first post-modern take on a national asset so routinely taken for granted. Author Ian Walthew takes a 12-inch plough to the cosy complacency that so many apply to the subject and reveals that 21st century rural life is not a place for the genteel - in a corner of Gloucestershire most commonly viewed by outsiders from their 4x4s as they hurry to overpriced weekend retreats, he finds a farming heartbeat that is proud and defiant, defended by a cast of characters that outshine The Archers. A revelation of a book.’
Tim Butcher, Author of Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart
(Galaxy Book of the Year 2008, 3rd Prize Winner)
‘A riveting read....a warning to newcomers about the dangers of upsetting village hierarchies and sensibilities'
Country Life
‘One of “The Top Ten Summer Holiday Books You Must Own”
Mail on Sunday
posted by SOAF Chairman at 8:41 AM
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