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.