The Decline of an English Village

For many of us who through the past half-century have observed the astonishing transformation of the English countryside, Robin Page has long been a hero. In his inimitably robust and vivid style, he has chronicled the ecological catastrophe inflicted on so much of our wildlife by modern agriculture, and along with it the disappearance of so much of that traditional rural life which for centuries had been synonymous with the countryside. It is forty-five years since he began this journey with his book The Decline of an English Village. But now he has brought this melancholy story up to date by showing how all the dehumanising pressures of the modern world, reinforced by our ever-growing population, have continued to remind us of just how much value we have lost that deserves to be remembered. * Christopher Booker * A deeply moving account of a world that has almost vanished. We can't go back in time but this beautiful story shows that there is much to learn from the past. * Zac Goldsmith * On the more positive side, meeting people like Robin Page on the Countryside Restoration Trust stand makes you realise that these individuals have a wealth of knowledge that is impossible to match in the anti-hunting/anti shooting world. The Decline of the English Village provides some very useful arguments to counter the barrage of nonsense produced by those who know precisely what they want changed in the countryside but have little idea about what might follow. -- Jim Barrington * Countryman's Weekly/Countryfile Live * Robin Page is a national treasure. This whiskery and rebarbative countryman, now in his mid seventies, has campaigned tirelessly for the cause of traditional rural life... he has shown, admirably, what even a single individual can do off his own bat by founding the Countryside Restoration Trust. The Decline of an English Village was one of Mr.Page's early books. Written 45 years ago, and now reissued with a new last chapter, it is a classic. * Country Life *