Fisherground

1976: the long hot summer. Four friends pool their limited resources to buy a fell farm in Eskdale, a Lakeland valley. With four children under three they embark on an adventure into shared living, combining incomes, efforts and skills to try to make a success of their fragile enterprise. In their early years at Fisherground they pursue a dream... and make it fail, whilst succeeding on oh so many far more important other counts. Join them as they meet an array of Cumbrian characters in the valley and explore the world of auctions, shows and valley life. Find out what it means to 'travel t'entire'! Journey with the author as he 'travels t'entire' spectrum of emotions; laughter to tears, love to estrangement, birth to death, with a warmth that reflects the complex relationships at Fisherground. This is much more than simply a book about a Lakeland farm. The author becomes a part-time priest, helping the hard-pressed vicar with services, weddings, baptisms and funerals. Join him on his first ill-fated funeral when he finds himself 'dancing with a girl with a hole in her stocking'. Share his experience when he and his wife Jennifer host the BBC programme 'This is the day'. Join him on the side of a mountain learning to paraglide, and share the exhilaration of a mile-high glide along his beloved Eskdale Valley. Inevitably, over a quarter of a century, there are dark times too. There is no flinching from the tensions involved when two couples and their children share a house, a farm and their future. One couple, Anne-Marie and Geoff, have to cope with cancer just as the Lake District is coping with the ravages of Foot and Mouth disease. As farmer, priest and campsite owner Ian meets the complex issues the disease raises head on. Share the dream!