RURAL HOURS

A FOYLES TOP TEN READ FOR APRIL A superb portrait of the complex imprint the countryside makes on the life of the mind A treasure Doireann Ní GhríofaIn Rural Hours Harriet Baker tells the story of three very different women each of whom moved to the countryside and was forever changed by it We encounter them at quiet moments pausing to look at an insect on the windowsill jotting down a recipe or digging for potatoes dirt beneath their nails Slowly we start to see transformations unfold Virginia Woolf Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann emerge before us as the passionate visionary writers we know them to be Following long periods of creative uncertainty and private disappointment each of Baker s subjects is invigorated by new landscapes and the daily trials and small pleasures of making a home slowly they embark on new experiments in form in feeling and in living that would resonate throughout the rest of their lives In the country each woman finds her path to convalescence and recovery to sexual and political awakening and above all to personal freedom and creative flourishing In graceful fluid prose Baker vividly recreates these overlooked episodes revealing how rural hours defined the lives of three pioneering writers In