Country LifeTalking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you will then receive another one.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services Team on 0303 123 9999 or .
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Non-Fiction
Addis, Faith
The year of the cornflake. 1983. Read by Syd Ralph, 7hours 5minutes.TB 5095.
Down to earth series; book 1. The story of the first year at "Phyllishayes", the roomy Devon farmhouse bought by Faith and Brian Addis to offer "memorable holidays for children". From snowball fights with farmyard dung to tea-parties in the rabbit run, the vividness of the children's own comments is faithfully recorded. Small wonder that one young visitor wrote to his parents to "lose your way when you fetch me". The series ties in with the BBC TV series starring Pauline Quirke and Warren Clarke. TB 5095.
Addis, Faith
Green behind the ears. 2000. Read by Elizabeth Proud,8hours 13minutes. TB 12364.
Down to earth series; book 2. Phillishayes Children's Holidays is established, and Faith and Brian are settling down for the winter after a frenetic summer of holidaying children. A minor upset with a dog giving birth to puppies under the house and a serious scare when Marcus is hurt in a road accident set the scene as Faith, Brian and the rest of the Addis family continue to settle into rural Devonshire life. TB 12364.
Addis, Faith
Buttered side down: a slice of country life. 2000. Read by Elizabeth Proud, 7hours 59minutes. TB 12401.
Down to earth series; book 3. This series follows Faith and Brian Addis as they work to keep open their holiday home "Phyllishayes" - a roomy farmhouse in Devon offering memorable holidays for children who may never have experienced the countryside in their lives. TB 12401.
Addis, Faith
It's better than work. 2000. Read by Elizabeth Proud, 8hours 22minutes. TB 12415.
Down to earth series; book 4. Faith is back in London learning the delicate art of dog grooming, while Brian insists on getting his and the dog's frozen food mixed up. In Devon Faith and Brian launch their next venture: a nursery and market garden. Once up and running they have to deal with the eccentric customers that come by, including a TV crew searching for daffodils in August! In the fourth instalment of the Down to Earth series Faith once again proves that life in Devon is never dull. TB 12415.
Addis, Faith
Taking the biscuit. 2000. Read by Elizabeth Proud, 6hours 20minutes.
TB 12468.
Down to earth series; book 5. A gift of 800 worms isn't to everyone's taste, but Faith is delighted and plans to become Devon's first worm tycoon. Meanwhile Brian, in a government youth motivating programme, is ferrying a bunch of Totnes' young bohemians around the countryside charting the local by-ways. Add to this Faith's very conservative dog-grooming customers and her irrepressible mother's love of Totnes and this book does exactly what its title suggests. Contains strong language. TB 12468.
Archer, Fred
The cuckoo pen. 1998. Read by Vincent Brimble, 6hours 35minutes. TB 12749.
This text recreates the days of the 1920s and 1930s when long days of hard work were broken only by the turning rhythm of the seasons and the pleasure of a chat when workers broke for their bait of bread and cheese. The author describes the character and tenor of rural England during the period between the wars. TB 12749.
Archer, Fred
Fred Archer, farmer's son. Read by Brian Hewlett, 8hours 50minutes. TB 12736.
Fred Archer grew up on his father's farm in the Vale of Evesham in the 1920s. In this text he describes local characters, and documents a forgotten rural life - the way an elevator pole was used to build a hayrick, how small boys were sent under cornricks to cut off with scissors hanging straws that mice could use as ladders, and how cottagers kept songbirds in cages. TB 12736.
Archer, Fred
A lad of Evesham vale. 1999. Read by Vincent Brimble, 6hours 30minutes. TB 12705.
Fred Archer has gathered a collection of Worcestershire country folk. From the alluring barmaid Amy Lights - 'a rural Venus' - to the Reverend Vernon, who rides a tricycle 'religiously' and excels at funerals, all the characters embody earthy, warm and ruddy humour. Central to the tale is Sacco, a builder's apprentice, who seduces the local girls and startles older folk with his much-prized motorbike. TB 12705.
Archer, Fred
The village doctor. Read by Vincent Brimble, 3hours 40minutes. TB 12706.
Edward Roberson was the doctor at Ashton-under-Hill for forty years, until his death in 1928. Revered and respected by the men on the farms, he visited his patients on horseback until the day he died. To young Fred Archer he was a mystic, a miracle man, mixing his medicines from the herbs that grew on the hill. For all his faults, he was kindly and benevolent, never sending his bill to the poor but counting on their votes when he stood for the District Council. TB 12706.
Archer, Fred
The village of my childhood. 2000. Read by Daniel Philpott, 6hours 45minutes. TB 12403.
To Fred Archer, born in the village of Ashton-under-Hill in 1915 and growing up in the 1920s, nothing seemed to change except the seasons. This was the age of paraffin lamps, earth closets, and the last train from Evesham at 7pm. The village was a self-sufficient community with its hierarchy, strong Church and Chapel, fierce politics and home-made entertainment. But change was coming, and the motor car, wireless, telephone and the service bus to Evesham cinema meant that village life would change forever. TB 12403.
Archer, Fred
By hook and by crook. 1978. Read by Stephen Jack, 5hours 45minutes. TB 3487.
More memories from the author's family archives. TB 3487.
Archer, Fred
The distant scene. 1967. Read by George Hagan, 6hours 15minutes. TB 548.
A country book about life and events in Ashton-under-Hill between 1876 and 1939. TB 548.
Archer, Fred
Golden sheaves, black horses. 2004. Read by Brian Hewlett, 4hours 33minutes. TB 14364.
This book records the beauty of the West of England and the villagers living in the area during the last decades of the nineteenth century. TB 14364.
Archer, Fred
Hawthorn Farm. 1998. Read by Daniel Philpott, 6hours 33minutes. TB 12225.
The story of life on a Worcestershire farm from the 1930s to the 1970s, highlighting the changes in farming practices and the people who found themselves part of agriculture and country life. TB 12225.
Archer, Fred
The secrets of Bredon Hill. Read by Brian Hewlett, 5hours 20minutes. TB 12735.
The local newspaper of 1900 covered the weekly happenings of men, farming and weather, but what of the Secret Things that were not reported in the papers that first year of the new century? Fred Archer resurrects the way of the village folk: how they lived in the cottages tucked away in every coomb under the hill. Here is the true smell of the hayloft and the farmyard, a documented account, month by month, of the year 1900 in a Cotswold village. TB 12735.
Askwith, Richard
The lost village: in search of a forgotten ruralEngland. c2008. Read by Richard Derrington, 13 hours 31 minutes. TB 15867.
Writer and journalist Richard Askwith describes a journey in search of thetrue country dwellers, through dales and suburbs, down ancient lanes andestates. He captures the voices of poachers and gamekeepers, farmers andhuntsmen, publicans and clergymen, thatchers and blacksmiths, anddemonstrates that, while the landscape is more changed than we thought,the past is never so simple as we imagine.Contains strong language.TB 15867.
Baker, Denys Val
The sea's in the kitchen. 1962. Read by Michael Aspel, 7hours 37minutes. TB 652.
Autobiography; book 1.Life is not easy for a writer, his wife and six children when they settle in Cornwall, but they have many hilarious experiences. TB 652.
Baker, Denys Val
The door is always open. 1963. Read by Duncan Carse, 6hours 34minutes. TB 653.
Autobiography; book 2. Continuing the humorous description of the trials that beset the author and his family in Cornwall, particularly when running a beach cafe and a pottery. TB 653.
Baker, Denys Val
An old mill by the stream. 1973. Read by Peter Gray, 8hours 24minutes. TB 2582.
Autobiography; book 7. Sequel to: The petrified mariner.With disarming candour, the author writes of the many adventures that took place between his decision to return to the west of Cornwall and the establishment of his new home at the Mill House. TB 2582.
Baker, Denys Val
Upstream at the mill. 1981. Read by Andrew Timothy, 7hours 9minutes. TB 4298.
Autobiography; book 16. Sequel to: As the stream flows by.Those who have read An Old Mill by the Stream need no introduction to the turmoil of Denys Val Barker's Cornish valley home. New readers join the family on a voyage to Portugal in 'Sanu', their ex-Admiralty MFV. TB 4298.
Baker, Denys Val
A family at sea. 1981. Read by Brian Perkins, 7hours 58minutes. TB 4988.
Autobiography; book 17. Twenty years ago the author fulfilled his life-long ambition of owning a boat by acquiring the MFV `Sanu.' This is the story of how, with his wife and six children, he sailed thewaters of Northern Europe and the Mediterranean sampling, as well as exotic coastlines, a cyclone and two sinkings. TB 4988.
Beckwith, Lillian
The hills is lonely. 1959. Read by Hannah Gordon, 8 hours 6 minutes. TB 11948.
Autobiography; book 1. When Lillian Beckwith advertised for a quiet, secluded place in thecountry, she received the following unorthodox description of theattractions of life in an isolated Hebridean croft; 'Surely it's thatquiet even the sheep themselves on the hills is lonely, and as to the sea,it's that near as I use it myself everyday for the refusals...' Intriguedby her would-be landlady's letter and spurred on by the scepticism of herfriends, Lillian Beckwith replied in the affirmative. TB 11948.
Beckwith, Lillian
The sea for breakfast. 1961. Read by Hannah Gordon, 7 hours 5 minutes. TB 11985.
Autobiography; book 2. After three years of rest cure in the Hebrides, Lillian must move house.The upside is that be it driftwood or food, the island is as rich inbounty as it is in beauty. On the downside, it is hard to disagree withthe islanders' cheerful opinion that 'schoolteachers is the mostignorantest people out'. From the moment she sets eyes on her new abode,privacy and quiet will be denied her. Her new front door, for instance,comes hotfoot from the local police station. Then the girls from thevillage come along to inspect the decorating progress - for sure the menwill follow and there'll be a ceilidh...TB 11985.
Beckwith, Lillian
The loud halo. 1964. Read by Hannah Gordon, 6 hours 37 minutes. TB12368.
Autobiography; book 3.A typical tourist's view of a crofter's life on a Hebridean island is 'alittle cottage in the highlands and a cow for milk'. For Lillian, it'sstorm-force winds, lashing hail and stinging rain. Or evenings of summercalm, molten sunsets and breezes soft as thistledown. Not forgetting thecompany of cantankerous cows and the belching Johnny Comic. And when'election fever' has died down, which includes one of the candidatesbringing with him the first loudspeaker van ever to visit the island -'the loud halo' - the island reverts back to its normal self. TB 12368.
Beckwith, Lillian
A rope-in case. 1968. Read by Stanley Pritchard, 6hours 2minutes. TB 661. Autobiography; book 5. When first settling in Bruach, in the Hebrides, Miss Beckwith was told always to carry a rope - in case. Here she tells some of the adventures she and her rope enjoyed. TB 661.
Benson, Richard
The farm. 2006. Read by Richard Stacey, 6hours. TB 14777.
After 200 years of farming in Yorkshire, the Benson family was forced to sell up. They found, like so many, that the land could no longer support them. While the farming way of life never came naturally to Richard Benson - a point that sent him running to London - he still feels his parents' loss and returns to do what he can to help. TB 14777.
Bingley, Xandra
Bertie, May and Mrs Fish: a wartime country memoir. Read by Jilly Bond, 5hours3minutes. TB 14564.
A wartime memoir about life on a farm in the Cotswolds, seen through the eyes of a child. Bingley's mother is left to farm the land whilst her husband is away at war, isolated in the landscape. With its eccentric cast of characters, this book captures both the essence of a country childhood and the remarkable courage and resilience displayed by ordinary people during the war. TB 14564.
Brown, Jean
We'll see the cuckoo. 1994. Read by Josephine Tewson, 29hours 56minutes. TB 11127.
In this memoir, the author tells of her family, of daily life on a Pennine Hill Farm and of twenty-one years as head of a village school. She describes the family's affinity with the Yorkshire Dales, rearing thousands of animals, and of their struggle to restore a ruined sixteenth-century farmhouse. She remembers a busy, happy childhood in the 1930s, and shares amusing anecdotes and moments of drama. TB 11127.
Clare, Horatio
Running for the hills. 2006. Read by Horatio Clare, 9hours 23minutes. TB 14835.
One summer's day in the late 1960's, two young Londoners fell in love with a hill farm in South Wales. They had almost no money, no idea about sheep and their tempestuous relationship would soon feel the strain. From memory, conversations and the diaries of his now-separated parents, the author reconstructs their relationship with each other and their mountain farm. TB 14835.
Clarke, Elizabeth
The darkening green. 1964. Read by Carol Marsh, 8hours 32minutes. TB 602.
Impressions of life on the farm sharpened by the author's knowledge that her sight would soon be lost. TB 602.
Corbett, Judy
Castles in the air. 2005. Read by Charlotte Strevens, 8hours 4minutes. TB 14444.
When Judy Corbett caught sight of a large stone mansion in the craggy foothills of the Snowdonian mountains she had little idea of the adventure on which she was about to embark. She and her husband-to-be, Peter, had long had pipe-dreams of buying an old ruin and escaping the city, the pace and excesses of modern life. But it was only when they'd moved into a squalidly filthy, cold and wet GwydirCastle that they began to realise what restoration dramas they'd let themselves in for. Restoring the sixteenth-century castle reduced the couple to near penury. But the magic of the house, its history and the landscape ensured that they stayed to tell their own unique story. TB 14444.
Cork, Peter
A country calendar. 2000. Read by Rosemary Leach, Tim Pigott-Smith and Denis Quilley, 2hours 23minutes. TB 14937.
Scenes from English life as it used to be in the 30's, 40's and early 50's, told in words and music. This works through the months of the year but can be listened to in any order. TB 14937.
Courtauld, George
An axe, a spade and ten acres: the story of a garden and nature reserve. 1983. Read by Christopher Scott, 8hours 48minutes. TB 6579.
George Courtauld, his wife, four children, six dogs, two cats, two cows, numerous ponies and assorted ducks, bantams, rabbits and hedgehogs live in Constablecountry on the Essex/Suffolk border. This book describes the author's love-hate relationship with his axe and his spade as he struggles to transform his ten acres into a properly landscaped garden and nature reserve. TB 6579.
Cragoe, Elizabeth
Sweet nothings: a country commonplace book. 1980. Read by Pauline Munro, 7hours 2minutes. TB 4418.
Autobiography; book 4. Sequel to: Yorkshire relish.After the break-up of her marriage, the author bought Ty Arian, a small farm in Wales. She describes her neighbours and the arts of the countryside, but most of all the birds and flowers all around her. TB 4418.
Davies, Peter
A corner of paradise. 1999. Read by Timothy Davies, 4hours. TB 12748.
The author reflects upon rural Shropshire after the Second World War. It was a time of simple pleasure and innocent discovery, enthusiasm as well as sadness, encompassing the poignancy of young love and the tragic death of his father. His youth was populated by characters as colourful as John the Waggoner and as engaging as Lisbet the Danish visitor who played the cello. TB 12748.
Dimond, Jack
Dimond gems: the life and tales of a Dorset Farmer. 2000. Read by Nigel Graham, 2hours 18minutes. TB 12805.
This autobiography is about the life of a Dorset farmer in the twentieth century. TB 12805.
Drabble, Phil
A voice in the wilderness. 1991. Read by George Hagan, 8hours 44minutes. TB 9077.
The autobiography of a journalist, broadcaster and countryman. TB 9077.
Drabble, Phil
What price the countryside? 1985. Read by Christopher Scott, 7hours 10minutes. TB 6269.
Phil Drabble examines both sides of the argument raging between those determined to develop agriculture to its fullest possible extent, and conservationists wanting to retain the countryside's traditional patterns and customs. He discusses emotive subjects such as foxhunting and big-business absentee landlords, and also talks about his own nature reserve where he manages the land economically and protects wildlife. TB 6269.