COUNTRYFILE: The Year in the Countryside

Star of BBC children's television since the 1970s, John Craven began presenting TV's Countryfile in 1979, tackling rural and farming stories from foot-and-mouth disease to the ban on fox hunting. Still reporting on the countryside after 50 years, he is just as excited at seeing the beauty of the ever-changing countryside: 'The eagerly anticipated arrival of wildflowers, the flash of a robin on the wind, the gentle hum of cows, content at their grazing, the snowy fleece of a brand-new lamb.' Organised by calendar year January to December we look up at the crystal clear starry skies of a January night and learn the constellations; watch the March hares go mad for each other and find out why they have long been considered good luck; wait for the sound of wings as the swallows return to us in May, explore the twists and turns of the Thames, slow and stately in August, harvest the fruits of the hedgerows in September and haunt Dorset's deserted villages in October. Go snow-drop crazy, bird crazy in Norfolk, enjoy exquisitely beautiful close-up colour photography of the great crested grebes or the little snout of a mole, go treasure hunting and explore the wild and wonderful Smugglers' Park in Dorset, learn distinctions between conifers and broad-leafed trees and see up close a red squirrel finding a comfy perch on the bracket of fungus commonly called 'chicken-of-the-woods'. A kite in flight, the Forest of Dean with green lanes and holloways, oak apples and mammal burrows, lightning and Kent cherries, glow worms and New Forest ponies, the book is a sheer delight of glorious colour photographs showing our countryside throughout the year and how we can best appreciate it. 320 big glamorous pages, 19 x 25cm.