In the late 1990s, Hilary Menos made the unusual move from Camden Town
to a Devon farmhouse, two miles from the nearest village. Over the next
ten years, together with her husband and three sons, she turned the
hundred acres into an organic farm, complete with herd of pedigree Red
Devon cows.
Red Devon reveals her experiences as a 'blow in' from upcountry,
moving into a tight-knit rural community, and witnessing first-hand the
conflict between farming tradition and modern commerce.
"Menos creates small worlds packed tight, seamless, masterfully
compressed. Her poems have wit, range and strength..."
Ruth Padel
Hilary Menos was born in Luton in 1964. Her first collection, Berg
(Seren, 2009), won the 2010 Forward Prize for Best First Collection. She
has won or placed in the National, Bridport and Mslexia Poetry
Competitions, while Wheelbarrow Farm won the Templar Pamphlet
Competition in 2010. Another pamphlet, Extra Maths, was published by
Smith Doorstop in 2006. Her work has appeared in BBC Wildlife
magazine, and she has read at events alongside Seamus Heaney and Dannie
Abse.