190pp + ixpp. The illustrated colour dust jacket would appear to be originally belonging to the hardback edition as the folders do not align with the spine. Consequently there is some wear at the top edge where the dust jacket overlaps the edge of the book. The author is well qualified to write this exciting book, for she has seen the moor at all seasons of the year from her remote Exmoor holding. She knows this unique and lonely place in all its moods. Devoted to her story or occupation since the Bronze Age, Exmoor has for centuries been the home of man and the restricted list of animals. Here, then if a record of a place and life lived there-detailed, factual and expressive. The book begins in February because February is such a vital month of the shepherds calendar, and it is the sheep which played a vital part in the agrarian economy of Exmoor. Following the cycle of the year she tells of such fascinating customs as the swailing of the gorse, and the rights of the Free Suitors; of the peat diggings, the branding of ponies, of Exmoor and longwool sheep, the splendid beech hedged banks and the wildflowers. Among moor-dwellers, who are so articulate as Miss Bourne also fitted to describe the shifting patterns of human activity in comfort with animals and crops in the delectable hills between Dell would turn and Minehead, Linton and South Molton. There were still have her skill with a pencil in drawing the landscape and its details both animate and inanimate. One colour, 25 pencil drawings. Some page spotting to edges otherwise very good.
