Fferm by Caryl Lewis

Fferm by Caryl Lewis

You must live like you are to die tomorrow, and farm as if you are to live forever.

Award-winning author Caryl Lewis conjures the shimmering world of her Welsh family farm over the seasons of a single year. This is a world where local children sing at neighbours' doors on New Year's Day for pocket money. Where corners of fields are left unharvested to let field mice and birds overwinter. Where farming can be both a cherished way of life and a perilous existence which can drive people to destruction.

Confronting both the beauty and cruelty of nature Lewis sketches an unforgettable portrait of a rooted way of life. From her precious patch of the planet, she shines a light on the wider forces affecting us all: the threat of climate change, the unrecognised contributions of women, and the struggle to preserve local traditions, inherited culture and generational wisdom.

Her snapshot of this remarkable community - one held together by acts of often invisible kindness - is a hopeful manifesto for preserving community and finding strength in a time of upheaval.

Caryl Lewis is an award-winning author and screenwriter. Her adult novel Drift was named Wales Book of the Year and Waterstones Welsh Book of the Year. She is a visiting lecturer in Creative Writing at Cardiff University and works to preserve and celebrate the Welsh language. She lives with her family on a farm near Aberystwyth.

@caryllewis2