Middleland

Rory Stewart has written a remarkable book about community and countryside, his community, his countryside. It is both telling and tender. He is treading in the footsteps of Thomas Hardy and Edward Thomas in his understanding of our need to belong and to contribute. A rare and life-affirming story of searching and finding our place to be and to cherish.

Michael Morpurgo

Urgent and inspiring, Middleland is at once a hymn to the beauty of the Cumbrian landscape, a testament to the spirit of its people, and a powerful argument for political reform. Deeply rooted in history and the land, personal, wise and often funny, this is a heartfelt celebration of local people and place, and an invitation to imagine a different kind of politics.

Caroline Lucas

A moving, grounded look at rural Britain

i

[A] fascinating and honest collection of daily anecdotes and stories of everyday folk, and of how the best intentions often end up on stony ground due to the realities of national politics

UK Press Syndication

Stewart was not your usual politician, and these eloquent articles… skilfully edited into a very readable diary, range widely across the constituency…. A serendipitous treat… [An] enjoyable book

Telegraph

Stewart sees Cumbria's glory... [his] writing on all these subjects combines erudition, a fine turn of phrase... disarming admissions of fallibility and a certain amount of backing into the limelight.

New Statesman

A thoughtful love letter to his former constituency... He writes with a wonderful familiarity of the region... refreshingly honest

Country Life

Full of intelligence and panache

Scotsman

[Stewart is] a compelling writer… [Middleland is] an intimate chronicle which should prove important for Cumbrians in the future and their political representatives

Cumbria Life

A triumph... [His columns] are very good indeed. His accounts of Cumbria as a sort of lost land are stark pieces of reportage... To read Middleland is to understand that rural England and those who make it ought to be protected... We are left with a distinct feeling that this country would be a better place if all MPs loved their constituencies as Rory Stewart clearly loved his.

Literary Review

Middleland is the latest instalment in the ongoing Rory Stewart project, which asks: what is my country, and what can I do for it?... His writing is limpid, reflective, often beautiful.

The New World

Middleland is at once a hymn to the beauty of the Cumbrian landscape, a testament to the spirit of its people, and a powerful argument for political reform

Caroline Lucas, Byline Times

A thought-provoking rural MP’s view of Cumbria

Country Life, *Books of the Year*