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Country Life by Giles Wood & Mary Killen
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Country Life

A story of peaks and troughs
Due to publisher restrictions, this audiobook is unavailable for purchase in your selected country.
Length 6 hours 16 minutes
Language English
Narrators Giles Wood & Mary Killen

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Brought to you by Penguin.

The Nutty Idyll


Former townies Giles and Mary swapped city life for rural Wiltshire over thirty years ago, and they've each embraced it in their own very different ways.

Mary has happily traded sophisticated London salons for monthly lectures at the Farmers' Club, competitive school quizzes, church interactions and local Auction House sales. While Giles has immersed himself in the catastrophic consequences of conventional farming, his organic no-dig veg-patch, the increasingly disproportionate response by local landlords to harmless trespassers and the strange death of the village house martins.

For recent city escapees and indigenous country folk alike, Giles and Mary sift through the unhelpful dreamy myths and offer a practical reality, with robust back and forth on every aspect of life in rural outposts, including but not limited to planning wars, class wars, dog thefts, tree-felling fights, misunderstandings between incomers and natives and the role of the Heron Appreciation Society.

The much-loved Wiltshire couple share their combined, hard-earned lessons, so we can learn the secret skills of grumbling and bumbling our way towards a new contented country life.

ยฉ2023 Giles Wood & Mary Killen (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Giles Wood (Author)
Giles Wood is an accomplished artist, and is also a published writer, with columns in The Telegraph and The Oldie. In the podcast space, he can be heard on Giles and Mary's Oldie Newsround with Harry Mount.

Mary Killen (Author)
Mary Killen is a busy journalist, with a weekly column in The Spectator, and regular contributions in many other national publications. She has been appearing on Channel 4's hit show Gogglebox since 2015 with her husband Giles, sitting together in their cottage in Wiltshire. This is Mary's seventh book.

Giles Wood (Author)
Giles Wood is an accomplished artist, and is also a published writer, with columns in The Telegraph and The Oldie. In the podcast space, he can be heard on Giles and Mary's Oldie Newsround with Harry Mount.

Mary Killen (Author)
Mary Killen is a busy journalist, with a weekly column in The Spectator, and regular contributions in many other national publications. She has been appearing on Channel 4's hit show Gogglebox since 2015 with her husband Giles, sitting together in their cottage in Wiltshire. This is Mary's seventh book.

Giles Wood (Author)
Giles Wood is an accomplished artist, and is also a published writer, with columns in The Telegraph and The Oldie. In the podcast space, he can be heard on Giles and Mary's Oldie Newsround with Harry Mount.

Mary Killen (Author)
Mary Killen is a busy journalist, with a weekly column in The Spectator, and regular contributions in many other national publications. She has been appearing on Channel 4's hit show Gogglebox since 2015 with her husband Giles, sitting together in their cottage in Wiltshire. This is Mary's seventh book.

Giles Wood (Author)
Giles Wood is an accomplished artist, and is also a published writer, with columns in The Telegraph and The Oldie. In the podcast space, he can be heard on Giles and Mary's Oldie Newsround with Harry Mount.

Mary Killen (Author)
Mary Killen is a busy journalist, with a weekly column in The Spectator, and regular contributions in many other national publications. She has been appearing on Channel 4's hit show Gogglebox since 2015 with her husband Giles, sitting together in their cottage in Wiltshire. This is Mary's seventh book.

Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting