A Farming Almanac

This book from the banks of the Teifi presents an affectionately informative rummage through Welsh farming practice, life and lore, past and present. As Stephens perambulates the farmyard we encounter celebrations in fact, fable, picture and poem of ploughing, poultry, cattle and dairy, markets and fairs, shepherding, droving, horses and harvest. Memories sit comfortably alongside contemporary information, proverbs and riddles.

This book will be at its best when shared by a farming grandparent and a kneeside audience, or as a souvenir from a museum of Welsh rural life, where it should be on sale.

And, for once, the small-print acknowledgements, showing, as they do, the breadth and depth of personal contributions to the whole, are, in themselves, a joy to read.