Divide

A ground-breaking book that uncovers the most overlooked cultural division in modern society - the rift between urban and rural communities.

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Longlisted for The 2022 Wainwright Prize for writing on: CONSERVATION

'Divide is well written and thought-provoking.' Sunday Telegraph

'A lively guide through the thorny challenges of rural life in an urban world. Essential reading for both incomer and local. Anna Jones is insightful but above all sensitive: we walk in everybody's shoes.' Tom Heap

'I've never read anything with such a diversity of opinions about the complex, often-fraught relationship between urban and rural worlds.' Ben Hoare, Countryfile Magazine

'The gulf between the attitudes of her Welsh farming family and the hipsterish city of Bristol has never been more difficult to cross. The author is ideally equipped to investigate the phenomenon...and well-placed to balance the issues.' Country Life magazine

'A timely idea, very well executed... Divide is ultimately an optimistic book, delighting in the merits of both the urban and rural experience at a time of great change." Juliet Blaxland, author of The Easternmost Sky

This book is a call to action. It warns that unless we learn to accept and respect our social, cultural and political differences as town and country people, we are never going to solve the chronic problems in our food system and environment.

As we stare down the barrel of climate change, only farmers - who manage two thirds of the UK's landscape - working together with conservation groups can create a healthier food system and bring back nature in diverse abundance. But this fledgling progress is hindered and hamstrung by simplistic debates that still stoke conflict between conservative rural communities and the liberal green movement.

Each chapter, from Family and Politics to Animal Welfare and the Environment, explores a different aspect of the urban/rural disconnect, weaving case studies and research with Anna's personal stories of growing up on a small, upland farm. There is a simple theme and a strong message running throughout the book - a plea to respect our differences, recognise each other's strengths and work together to heal the land.