West Country

A Cultural History

John Payne author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Signal Books Ltd

Published:26th May '09

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West Country cover

The English West Country is a land of exceptional landscapes: many miles of wild, unspoilt coastline and vast expanses of wild moorland; great cities such as Exeter, Plymouth, Bath and Bristol; and market towns, villages and hamlets. On one level, the West Country is the most English of all English regions, home of clotted cream, thatch, church spires, folksong, hobby horses and Cecil Sharp. Yet the area was trading with Mediterranean Europe before the Romans. People lived in the West Country long before Britain, or England, were invented. From the great stone circles of Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire to the menhirs of Cornwall, and the wealth of prehistoric remains on the Isles of Scilly, this has always been an inhabited landscape, crafted by men and women working closely with nature and natural forces. John Payne explores this culturally rich and varied region, revealing many facets of its distinctive and much-loved identity.

'Charming, learned and a little old-fashioned... Payne in a fine addition to Signal's Landscapes of the Imagination list guides us genially and instructively from Hardy's Dorset right down to Hepworth's St Ives.'--The Independent

ISBN: 9781904955610

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 600g

256 pages