'As hilarious, charming, eccentric, informative, addictive and delightful as the show itself' STEPHEN FRY

Much-loved radio drama The Archers has been at the heart of British life for over seventy years, and the momentous events and changes of this time have all found a place in Ambridge. For more than three decades, scriptwriter Graham Harvey was the man behind the show’s farming storylines, writing over 600 episodes and crafting some of its most memorable moments: the Great Flood, the trashing of Brian’s GM crop, the loss of the Grundy family farm.

In this book Graham interweaves personal memories of these moments with extracts from the scripts he created, offering behind-the-scenes details of how key characters and plotlines were developed, keeping pace with the real changes taking place in village and farm life. He also explores the part the show played in setting Britain on its disastrous transition from small-scale, sustainable farming to industrial agriculture. Could it now help guide the nation back to the nature-friendly, planet-saving methods we so desperately need?

Underneath The Archers relates a personal drama, too: how Graham uncovered his father’s dark, wartime secret, the trauma which was to blight their family life. The insecurities of his youth gave Graham a deep attachment to the fictional community he was creating. The reassurance he found was in a love for England: its land, its soil, its farming culture – a love that found its perfect expression in the world of Ambridge and its inhabitants.

• 'Any fan of The Archers will down this book in grateful glugs . . . As hilarious, charming, eccentric, informative, addictive and delightful as the show itself' Stephen Fry
• ‘A masterclass on how to weave environmental education and activism into popular media’ David R. Montgomery, co-author of Growing a Revolution and What Your Food Ate
• ‘A must for all Archers listeners’ Tim Bentinck
• ‘A fascinating insight into Britain’s longest-running rural soap opera, diving into the characters, storylines and how they ebb and flow with British agriculture through the decades. Full of wit, humour and the realities of British agriculture.’ Jake Fiennes, General Manager of Holkham Estate

Graham Harvey is best known as a scriptwriter and agricultural story editor for The Archers, penning more than 600 episodes over 34 years and earning himself the nickname ‘the other Minister for Farming’.

He has worked as a feature writer at Farmers Weekly and as a freelance journalist for a wide range of publications including the Sunday Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, New Scientist and Country Life. For four years he wrote the Old Muckspreader column in Private Eye. Graham’s first book, The Killing of the Countryside (Cape) won the BP Natural World Book Prize for environmental writing. Other books include The Forgiveness of Nature (Cape), We Want Real Food (Constable Robinson) and Grass-Fed Nation (Icon Books).

In 2008 Harvey co-founded the Oxford Real Farming Conference, which has become Britain’s leading conference on ecological agriculture.