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Category Archives: My life
The Compassion of Solitude
I can’t imagine how grim it must be to be a senior member of the Royal Family and always in the public eye. I think it’s the difficulty of getting away from people that makes life in the modern world … Continue reading
Writing About Writing: People
When I was a teenager I remember reading somewhere that an author – quite a famous one, I think – had to write. I can remember at the time I cringed. It sounded so precious and so pseudo-sensitive. Then, as … Continue reading
Posted in books, My life
Tagged Alan Cadbury, Francis Pryor, Lifers' Club, Unbound, writing
At Last: Late Spring Flowers
Lambing has finished and yesterday we gave the last batch their protective inoculations before releasing them from the barn and out to pasture. They still have open access to the shelter of the barn, should they need it, but they … Continue reading
Posted in Farming, Gardening, My life
Tagged Alan Cadbury, anemones, Celandines, cowslips, farming, gardening, lambing, Leucojum aestivum, sheep farming, snakes head fritillaries, spring flowers, summer snowflake, Unbound
My Pink Half of the Drainpipe: A Fond Memory of Viv Stanshall
I was going to use the song , My Pink Half of the Drainpipe as the title to the chapter on the 20th century in my Making of the British Landscape. Then I decided against it, wisely I think, as … Continue reading
Posted in My life
Tagged Bonzo Dog Band, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Bonzos, ginger geezer, Viv Stanshall, Vivian Stanshall
Not Losing the Plot
I’m sometimes asked how I manage to combine sheep farming with writing. A follow-up question is often about the difficulty of getting back into the swing of writing, after a period away from it. I suspect both would be answered … Continue reading
Posted in books, My life
Tagged Alan Cadbury, lambing, sheep farming, Unbound, writing
A Most Remarkable Woman: Gwen Raverat (1885-1957)
Gwendolen (Gwen) Darwin was the grand-daughter of the great Charles Darwin. In 1911 she married a Frenchman, Jacques Raverat and one of their daughters, Sophie, married my father’s elder brother Mark. Dr. Mark Pryor was a very distinguished zoologist and … Continue reading
Posted in My life
Tagged Boomsbury Group, Cambridge, Gwen Raverat, William Pryor
DIY Garden Decoration: Wirework
Maisie and I share one huge advantage over the bulk of middle class humanity: we don’t have good taste. Snobby friends from London are constantly having to avert their eyes as they walk around our garden: here’s a painted concrete … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, My life
Tagged Francis Pryor, garden decoration, Maisie Taylor, wire weaving
Christmas Comes But Once a Year (and when it does, it’s late…)
Strange as it may seem, our lives don’t stop just because one of us is about to appear on millions of people’s television screens, prancing about in the rain somewhere in south Wales. No, sheep have to be fed and … Continue reading
Posted in My life
Tagged cakes, Christmas cake, Francis Pryor, Maisie Taylor, Stir Up Sunday
Hazel Nuts: Britain’s first farmed food? Part 3
In this experiment I was not so much concerned with yield, as with storage. Having grown hazels for nearly twenty years, I do not need to be convinced of their productivity and to some extent estimates of ancient yield are … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, Gardening, My life
Tagged cobnuts, Coryllus maxima, Corylus avellana, hazel, hazelnuts
Hazel Nuts: Britain’s first farmed food? Part 2
My interest in hazel nuts began on my first dig, back in 1963 when I was a volunteer excavator on an Iron Age hillfort in Bedfordshire, about half an hour’s drive from my parents’ house. I’d just passed my driving … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, Gardening, My life
Tagged cobnuts, Coryllus maxima, Corylus avellana, hazel, hazelnuts
