Author Jamie
Blackett arrives home from the Army to take over a small family estate on the
Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway and finds a rapidly changing countryside.



In a humorous and
occasionally moving tale, he describes how
he grapples with the intricacies of farming, conservation and estate management
and tells the story of founding a pack of foxhounds and a herd of pedigree beef
cattle. Part childhood memoir, part biopic of rural life, readers are transported
to a remote and beautiful part of Scotland and acquainted with its wildlife,
its people and its customs. One minute he is
unblocking his septic tank,
and the next he is watching Glenn Close film a sex scene in his bedroom.



Set over the first
two decades of the 21st century, through the
Scottish independence referendum, Brexit and the hunting ban, the result is an enlightened review of the challenges
threatening a vulnerable way of life
and an emerging
rural philosophy about the directions Scotland, farming and the countryside
might take in the brave new world of Brexit.