All Around the Year by Michael Morpurgo

Description

All Around the Year is the diary of Parsonage Farm in Iddelseigh, North Devon, where life is remote and has remained unchanged for centuries. This story of a family farm, with its daily hardships and rewards, is accompanied by the poems of Morpurgo’s friend and neighbour, Ted Hughes, whose own writing was inspired by his nearby farm. Alongside Morpurgo’s diary and Hughes’s poetry, the book is illustrated with the beautiful photographs of James Ravilious, who documented rural life in Devon for 17 years and worked closely with Clare and Michael Morpurgo to create the first edition. 

Originally published in 1979, All Around the Year was life-changing for  Morpurgo. It was his first book, and these early impressions of the English countryside grew into a deliberate undertaking that he describes as the best story of his life: the founding of Farms for City Children, a charity started with his wife Clare in 1976, that has since enabled over 100,000 city children to spend a week in the countryside, living and working on a farm.