{"title":"Books by Nicola Chester","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781915294067","title":"On Gallows Down","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize 2022 for Nature Writing - Highly Commended\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner for the Richard Jefferies Award 2021 for Best Nature Writing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'A rural, working-class writer in an all too rarefied field, Chester’s work is unusual for depicting the countryside as it is lived on the economic margins.' \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'An important portrait of connection to the land beyond ownership or possession.'\u003c\/strong\u003e Raynor Winn\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘It’s ever so good. Political, passionate and personal.’\u003c\/strong\u003e Robert Macfarlane\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘Evocative and inspiring…environmental protest, family, motherhood and…nature.’\u003c\/strong\u003e Claire Fuller, author of \u003cem\u003eUnsettled Ground\u003c\/em\u003e, Costa Novel Award Winner 2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNature is everything. It is the place I come from and the place I got to. It is family. Wherever I am, it is home and away, an escape, a bolt hole, a reason, a place to fight for, a consolation, and a way home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs a child growing up in rural England, \u003cem\u003eGuardian Country Diarist\u003c\/em\u003e Nicola Chester was inexorably drawn to the natural landscape surrounding her. Walking, listening and breathing in the nature around her, she followed the call of the cuckoo, the song of the nightingale and watched as red kites, fieldfares and skylarks soared through the endless skies over the chalk hills of the North Wessex Downs: the ancient land of Greenham Common which she called home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNicola bears witness to, and fights against, the stark political and environmental changes imposed on the land she loves, whilst raising her family to appreciate nature and to feel like they belong – core parts of who Nicola is. From protesting the loss of ancient trees to the rewilding of Greenham Common, to the gibbet on Gallows Down and living in the shadow of Highclere Castle (made famous in Downton Abbey), \u003cem\u003eOn Gallows Down\u003c\/em\u003e shows how one woman made sense of her world – and found her place in it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205899878578,"sku":"9781915294067","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781915294067_c3e0a418-d12d-4fd0-a287-cb90b8932a44.jpg?v=1786030214"},{"product_id":"9781472971821","title":"RSPB Spotlight: Otters","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOtters\u003c\/i\u003e by Nicola Chester is an accessible and lively account of an intriguing and much-loved animal that, surprisingly, is still endangered and rarely seen despite a recent resurgence that has seen it expand from the remote countryside into our cities.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNicola’s charming, informed text brings this elusive and exciting mammal into sharper focus revealing what an otter is, and how they live, feed, play and breed. Nicola reflects on how otters exist in our imaginations culturally and how that has changed over the years. She also examines the many challenges otters have faced, exposing what brought them to the brink of extinction, and explores the challenges we face in trying to find and watch otters in the wild.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEach Spotlight title is carefully designed to introduce readers to the lives and behaviour of our  favourite birds and mammals.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312443994485,"sku":"9781472971821","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781472971821_9d56e36a-df87-4561-b88e-eedf139d23b1.jpg?v=1786021007"},{"product_id":"9781915294678","title":"Ghosts of the Farm","description":"\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the 2026 Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing\u003cbr\u003eShortlisted for the 2025 Richard Jefferies Award\u003cbr\u003eA Book of the Year 2025 — \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn urgent telling of a kind of real-life haunting of two rural women who both wanted to become farmers—one in 1940s Britain and one in the present—by award-winning author Nicola Chester.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nicola Chester will come to be seen as a Nan Shepherd of our time.\"—Nick Acheson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Meaning of Geese\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the story of Miss White, a woman who lived in the author’s village 80 years ago, a pioneer who realised her ambition to become a farmer during the Second World War, and how she worked to become accepted within this community. Nicola Chester, too, dreamed of becoming a farmer but working with horses was the only path open to her. Was it easier for women to become farmers in the 1940s than it is now?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMoving between Nicola’s own attempts to work outdoors and Miss White’s desire to farm a generation earlier, Nicola explores the parallels between their lives – and the differences. Miss White buys a derelict farm and begins to renovate and modernize it. As ghost (barn) owls flit between these two worlds, Nicola draws connections with farming and rural life in both times, from the role of women in rural communities in the modern day to Miss White’s experience in the 1940s. And how those farming modernizations have left the modern day with both a denuded landscape and farming community and a disconnect from nature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncreasingly, Nicola’s research into past and present interlinks and illuminates her own battles to raise awareness of rural communities, outdoor work and the ongoing loss of farmland birds that were so familiar to Miss White.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An absolutely fascinating insight into women and farming. Nicola Chester really knows how to bring the past alive.\"—Claire Fuller, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Memory of Animals\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313179275637,"sku":"9781915294678","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781915294678_35a925dd-ec02-43e3-b90a-e9b49de42f05.jpg?v=1786030239"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-nicola-chester.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}