{"title":"Books by John Connell","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780717194643","title":"The Stream of Everything","description":"\u003cp\u003e‘Quietly triumphant.’ Donal Ryan\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Ambitious and gentle.’ Belinda McKeon\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A terrific book.’ Michael Harding\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn May 2020, John Connell finds himself, like so many others, confined to his local area, the opportunity to freely travel and socialise cut short. His attention turns to the Camlin river – an ever-present source of life for his town’s inhabitants and, for John, a site of boyhood adventure, first love, family history and local legend.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe decides to canoe its course with his friend\u003cem\u003e, Sunday Times\u003c\/em\u003e journalist Peter Geoghegan, a two-day trip requiring physical exertion and mental resilience. As the world grows still around them, the river continues to teem with life – a symphony of buzzing mayfly and jumping trout. During their meander downstream, John reflects on his life: his travels, his past relationships and his battle with depression, as well as on Irish folklore, geopolitics and philosophy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Stream of Everything\u003c\/em\u003e is both a reverie and a celebration of close observation; a winding, bucolic account of the summer we discovered home.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204051206322,"sku":"9780717194643","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780717194643.jpg?v=1786015191"},{"product_id":"9781805461920","title":"Twelve Sheep","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor John Connell, the lambing season on his County Longford farm begins in the autumn. In the sheep shed, he surveys the dozen females in his care and contemplates the work ahead as the season slowly turns to winter, then spring.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe twelve sheep have come into his life at just the right moment. After years of hard work, John felt a deep tiredness creeping up on him, a sadness that he couldn't shrug off. Having always sought spiritual guidance, he comes to realise that, in addition to the soothing words of literature and philosophy, perhaps the way ahead involves this simple flock of sheep. In the hard work of livestock rearing, in the long nights in the shed helping the sheep to lamb, he can reflect on what life truly means.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike the flock that he shepherds, this book is both simple and profound, a meditation on the rituals of farming life and a primer on the lessons that nature can teach us. As spring returns and the sheep and their lambs are released into the fields, skipping with joy, John recalls the words of Henry David Thoreau, reminding us to 'live in each season as it passes.'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55205854577013,"sku":"9781805461920","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57685706178933,"sku":"9781805461906","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781805461920.jpg?v=1792598863"},{"product_id":"9781529042382","title":"The Running Book","description":"A book about the joys and pleasures of running, the highs and lows of life, the history and landscape of Ireland, and so much more.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303497052533,"sku":"9781529042382","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529042382_3d125038-73aa-4470-885e-116430646c27.jpg?v=1786034018"},{"product_id":"9781783784189","title":"The Cow Book","description":"\u003cp\u003eFarming has been in John Connell's family for generations, but he never intended to follow in his father's footsteps.  Until, one winter, he finds himself back on the farm and begins to learn the ways of the farmer and the way of the cows.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConnell records the hypnotic rhythm of the farming day - cleaning the outhouses, milking the herd, tending to sickly lambs, helping the cows give birth.  But alongside the routine events, there are the unforeseen moments when things go wrong: when a calf fails to thrive, when a sheep goes missing, when illness breaks out, when depression takes hold, when an argument erupts and things are said that cannot be unsaid.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Cow Book\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a calving season.   It is also the story of the cow itself, from its domestication and worship as a God by the Ancient Egyptians to the modern practice of mechanized herds, via the figure of the cowboy, the destruction of the American buffalo, the demise of the aboriginal jackaroos and the consequences of BSE. And, above all, it is the story of Connell's life as a farmer, of his relationship with his birthplace of County Longford, with the community around the family farm, with the animals he tends, and with his father.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303989555573,"sku":"9781783784189","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781783784189_f472f5ff-8f13-43ed-ae0c-46f11460fa72.jpg?v=1786026220"},{"product_id":"9789811559075","title":"The Ends of Empire","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book offers a fresh analysis of constitutional, economic, demographic and cultural developments in the overseas territories of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Ranging from Greenland to Gibraltar, the Falklands to the Faroes, and encompassing islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and the Caribbean, these territories command attention because of their unique status, and for the ways that they occasionally become flashpoints for rival international claims, dubious financial activities, illegal migration and clashes between metropolitan and local mores. Connell and Aldrich argue that a negotiated dependency brings greater benefits to these territories than might independence.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311424975221,"sku":"9789811559075","price":69.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9789811559075_63490e0b-90be-43a0-95b3-6993174dd57b.jpg?v=1786033153"},{"product_id":"wisdom-of-farmers","title":"The Wisdom of Farmers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'There is hard-won wisdom here, and good cheer, and a reminder that the world is much wider, older and more interesting than you'd think' BILL McKIBBEN\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Kind, wise and immensely readable' TIM FLANNERY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA thoughtful, illuminating rumination on the life lessons we can take from those who work the land and the millennia of wisdom they draw upon when they go about their day, 'making a living by turning light and time into money'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs with his previous bestsellers, John Connell skilfully synthesises philosophy, art, literature and spirituality to bolster his thoughts on such topics as stoicism, the food chain and the role of community, leaving the reader convinced of the importance of connecting with their own inner farmer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487949463925,"sku":"9781805464235","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781805464235.jpg?v=1786355173"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-john-connell.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}