Reward for Winter

Five years ago, Di Slaney left the rat-race and the inner city behind and bought a farm in the village of Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire, populating it with animals of all shapes and sizes. Her first collection, 'Reward for Winter' tells the story on three levels: a year in the life of a new smallholder, with all the challenges and triumphs that brings; the entire history of Bilsthorpe, from settlement by the Viking Bildur to the town's rejuvenation on the arrival of coal mining in the 1920s; and also a complete biography of a single chicken living on the farm. Di does all this in verse, mastering every poetic form you've heard of - and several more - in the process. Ambitious yet wonderfully grounded (particularly where the chicken is concerned), this unique collection will delight readers with its humour, insight, love and hope.