The Running Hare cover art

The Running Hare

The Secret Life of Farmland

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The Running Hare

By: John Lewis-Stempel
Narrated by: Bernard Hill
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About this listen

The Sunday Times best seller. Winner of the Thwaites Wainwright Prize 2015. BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week'.

Traditional ploughland is disappearing. Seven cornfield flowers have become extinct in the last 20 years. Once abundant, the corn bunting and the lapwing are on the Red List. The corncrake is all but extinct in England. And the hare is running for its life.

Written in exquisite prose, The Running Hare tells the story of the wild animals and plants that live in and under our ploughland, from the labouring microbes to the patrolling kestrel above the corn, from the linnet pecking at seeds to the seven-spot ladybird that eats the aphids that eat the crop. It recalls an era before open-roofed factories and silent, empty fields, recording the ongoing destruction of the unique, fragile, glorious ploughland that exists just down the village lane.

But it is also the story of ploughland through the eyes of man who took on a field and husbanded it in a natural, traditional way, restoring its fertility and wildlife, bringing back the old farmland flowers and animals. John Lewis-Stempel demonstrates that it is still possible to create a place where the hare can rest safe.

©2016 John Lewis-Stempel (P)2017 Random House Audiobooks Animals Biological Sciences Environment Outdoors & Nature Science Conservation Inspiring Thought-Provoking Heartfelt

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All stars
Most relevant  
A story of the farmland of our past with some hope for its future. Plus the magical hare!

Captivating

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A real tonic in January. Really shows how things can change quickly for wildlife but also sad to hear that farming in the UK in general is still focused on yields a any cost.

Hopeful, more wildlife friendly farming please

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I felt I was standing in Flinders , wonderful. I book I will listen to many times.

the beautiful descriptions.

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This visionary book gives hope to all of us who love the natural world. It is special because it is not a town dwellers unrealistic vision. It is the vision of a farmer and a countryman through and through.

The countryside alive again

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Beautifully written and full of things I didn't know. Bernard Hill reads it much better than the Meadowland narrator. Wish he could do the rest of them.

Love John's books. Bernard Hill is great too.

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I was delighted to hear about how, within a year, a field could bring so much in the way of wildlife back. Stories of farm life as I remember them and histories of so many things that my grandparents and parents lived.

country side references

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Listening to this book is a little like listening to a work of poetry.

I particularly enjoyed the agricultural history.

Melodic

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Loved it, brings to the fore the need to look at what is being done to countryside and what could be

Stunningly poetical

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If you buy only one book about nature - make it this one. JLS shows us that there is another way to tend the land, a gentler way, that is both more productive and kind to nature and our fellow creatures. Moving and beautiful.

Beautiful

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This is a both moving and informative description and explnation of what the British countryside both used to be and could be, if it were not for the use of chemicals on the land. The literary and historical asides are particularly interesting.

A moving and informative account.

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