First published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A unique six-year compilation of British rural news, interspersed with the author's own observations on birds, mammals, fish, and aspects of Britain's countryside today. Most rural subjects are covered in a comprehensive snapshot of country life at the start of the new Millennium. From December 1999 to February 2006, scores of different issues are compressed into hundreds of bite-sized, easily digested articles. From angling to animal rights campaigns, foxhunting to farming, game shooting to wildlife conservation, a diverse collection of views, comment and advice is presented. The batty and the bizarre also get a look-in, as do the controversial and the downright crazy. With its packed pages, A Country Pillow Book could become a bedside companion for the rural researcher or a useful tool for the country-loving insomniac.

Country houses and the British empire, 1700–1930 assesses the economic and cultural links between country houses and the Empire between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Using sources from over fifty British and Irish archives, it enables readers to better understand the impact of the empire upon the British metropolis by showing both the geographical variations and its different cultural manifestations. Barczewski offers a rare scholarly analysis of the history of country houses that goes beyond an architectural or biographical study, and recognises their importance as the physical embodiments of imperial wealth and reflectors of imperial cultural influences. In so doing, she restores them to their true place of centrality in British culture over the last three centuries, and provides fresh insights into the role of the Empire in the British metropolis.

This book analyses the specific ways in which family lives have changed and how they have been affected by the major structural and cultural changes of the second half of the twentieth century.--

This monograph provides an insight into English country house fiction by twentieth and twenty-first century authors, with a focus on the works of E.M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh, Iris Murdoch, Alan Hollinghurst, and Sarah Waters. The country house is explored within the wider social and cultural contexts of the period, including contemporary architectural development. The variety of literary depictions of the country house reflects the physical diversification of buildings which can be classified as such, from smaller variants to formerly grand residences on the brink of physical collapse. Within the scope of contemporary fiction, architecture and poetics of space, the country house, given its uniquely integrating and exceptionally evocative qualities, accentuates different conceptions of dwelling. Consequently, literary portrayals of the country house can be seen as both prefiguring and reflecting the contemporary practice of living.

This book shows how governance regimes before the 1970s suppressed rural prospects of housing improvement and created conditions for middle-class capture. Using original archival sources to reveal the intricacies of local and national policy processes, weak rural housing performances are shown to owe more to national governance regimes than local under-performance. Looking `behind the scenes' at policy processes highlights neglected principles in national governance, and shows how investigating rural housing is fundamental to understanding the national scene. With original insights and a new analytical perspective, this volume offers evidence and conclusions that challenge mainstream assumptions in public policy, housing, rural studies and planning.

'This is a unique interpretation of rural issues that will become essential reference for students, scholars, politicians, developers and rural activists...' - Imre Kovach, President, European Society for Rural Sociology, Research director, Institute for Political Sciences, Budapest