When you buy a used copy YOU SAVE
Carbon Dioxide
1.22Kg of CO2
Water
152 litre(s) of Water
Tree
0.0091 Tree(s)
donate
1 book donated to global literacy projects

The Plot: A Biography of an English Acre

4.00 ( 3 Ratings by Goodreads)
The Plot: A Biography of an English Acre

The Plot: A Biography of an English Acre

(Author)
4.00 (3 Ratings by Goodreads)
hardback
Published: 5 October, 2009
Standard worldwide delivery by Thu, July 23 - Tue, July 28
Order within 0
Promo Badge
Condition: USED
$9.01
RRP $25.46
You save $16.45 (65%)
Price includes shipping
Available 2 in stock
- +
Add to basket Wishlist This
FREE Returns within 30 days
More Details

Popular Books by Madeleine Bunting

View All Books by Madeleine Bunting
Love of Country
Love of Country
Madeleine Bunting
$7.43 $14.73
Used
Add to basket
The Seaside
The Seaside
Madeleine Bunting
$23.14 $26.81
New
Add to basket
The Seaside
The Seaside
Madeleine Bunting
$14.01 $14.73
New
Add to basket
Willing Slaves
Willing Slaves
Madeleine Bunting
$7.43 $17.41
Used
Add to basket
Island Song
Island Song
Madeleine Bunting
$7.43 $12.05
Used
Add to basket
The Model Occupation
The Model Occupation
Madeleine Bunting
$20.55 $22.78
New
Add to basket
Island Song
Island Song
Madeleine Bunting
$8.93 $17.41
Used
Add to basket
Labours of Love
Labours of Love
Madeleine Bunting
$7.16 $13.39
Used
Add to basket
Labours of Love
Labours of Love
Madeleine Bunting
$8.69 $26.81
Used
Add to basket
Ceremony of Innocence
Ceremony of Innocence
Madeleine Bunting
$13.22
New
Add to basket

Description

On a remote edge of the North York moors, where a grassy hillside overlooks the Vale of York, there is a secluded acre of land, edged by woods, called Scotch Corner. A mysterious war memorial chapel stands there, a simple stone building, decorated with bold carvings. Madeleine Bunting's father - an artist and visionary, but also a fiercely conservative man, with romantic, old-fashioned views about England - erected the chapel in his youth. He was a difficult, distant parent, and Bunting fled her home life in Yorkshire as a teenager. But after her father's death, Bunting wanted to understand him and his passionate, lifelong attachment to this plot of land, and she wanted to explore how we find a sense of belonging. Bunting discovered that this quiet spot has a rich history. It had been home to Neolithic forts and earthworks, farmed by the monks from nearby Byland Abbey and fought over by medieval Scots. Many have passed through the Plot. Thousands of cattle walked its drovers' road for centuries, and Wordsworth and other romantics searched for beauty and the picturesque in its views and valleys. Others have been more permanent inhabitants: the sheep that patiently crop the moorland, the grouse slaughtered there every autumn, the farmers struggling to make a living from the land. And Bunting's father, who tied his life so closely to this acre. In learning about the Plot, Bunting comes to see how 'wisdom rests in places', how important it is for us to understand the places that shape our lives, and she reaches an understanding of her father and his ideals. "The Plot" is an original and heartfelt book which deftly balances the emotional and the political, and shows what a contested, layered place we inhabit.
Prizes

Shortlisted for Ondaatje Prize 2010.

See more

More Details

Type Book
ISBN13 9781847080851
ISBN10 1847080855
Number Of Pages 304
Item Weight 720 g
Product Dimensions 160 x 34 x 236 mm
Publisher / Reseller Granta Books
Format hardback
Edition First Edition
See More +

Media Reviews

'This is a seriously good book: a borehole history of both an acre of England and Bunting's complicated father. As it proceeds, its patterns bind tighter and tighter, landscape and memory begin to inter-react, and plot thickens plot. This is a wonderful excavation of what a sense of placeA might mean - and of the delusions and fulfilments that landscape can inspire' Robert Macfarlane, author of Mountains of the Mind and The Wild Places 'Madeleine Bunting's book is full of engaging stories, imaginatively researched and written with great tenderness. It evokes the Plot wonderfully well, but beyond that it is also a statement of the value of a sense of place more generally. I gobbled it up in a weekend' Edward Stourton

Show more

Author's Bio

Madeleine Bunting is a leading columnist for the Guardian. Born in North Yorkshire, Bunting read History at Cambridge. She joined the Guardian in 1990. She is the author of The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands under German Rule, 1940-45 and Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives (both HarperCollins). She lives in London with her husband and three children

Show more