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WINNER OF THE THWAITES WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2015

What really goes on in the long grass?

Meadowland gives an unique and intimate account of an English meadow´s life from January to December, together with its biography. In exquisite prose, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn, and includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil beneath: the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren,the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others. Their births, lives, and deaths are stories that thread through the book from first page to last.

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"My book of the year. Meadowland is a seasonal journey of discovery, a pilgrimage that nurtures the soul and gives meaning to life; all life. Each beautifully crafted sentence provides a stepping-stone to absorb and understand the land, with the writer´s lyrical voice acting as guide and trusty staff as well as illuminating the mind´s eye with wonderful imagery and perceptive literary devices." Stuart Winter Sunday Express 20140601

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John Lewis-Stempel is a writer and farmer. His previous books include The Wild Life: A Year of Living on Wild Food, Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field, which won the 2015 Wainwright Prize, The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Wainwright Prize, Where Poppies Blow, which won the prize, The Wood: The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood, and most recently Still Water: The Deep Life of the Pond. John writes for Country Life and won the BMSE Columnist of the Year Award in 2016. He lives on the borders of England and Wales with his wife and two children.

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