Francis Kilvert's diary shows a compassionate and thoughtful delight in the people and beautiful surroundings of the English countryside. With good cheer he records his loves (among them poetry and the attentions of pretty girls) and his dislikes (including a distaste for bathing in knickers that leaves more than one beach scandalized), as well as the town folklore and parishioner's stories that his tender interest in others arouses. Heartfelt, humorous and reflective, this is a transportive glimpse of a time gone by.

Generations of inhabitants have helped shape the English countryside - but it has profoundly shaped us too.It has provoked a huge variety of responses from artists, writers, musicians and people who live and work on the land - as well as those who are travelling through it.English Journeys celebrates this long tradition with a series of twenty books on all aspects of the countryside, from stargazey pie and country churches, to man's relationship with nature and songs celebrating the patterns of the countryside (as well as ghosts and love-struck soldiers).