Thrilled, honoured & humbled to be on the @wainwrightprize.bsky.social longlist. #GhostsoftheFarm @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social And among such wonderful company too.
July 15, 2026 at 8:38 AM
Thrilled, honoured & humbled to be on the @wainwrightprize.bsky.social longlist. #GhostsoftheFarm @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social And among such wonderful company too.
I've gobbled up the first few chapters of #GhostsOfTheFarm by @nicolawriting.bsky.social, and I'm loving it.
#BookSky #RuralWriting #NatureWriting #LifeWriting #Memoir #FarmingWomen #WW2 #Countryside
#BookSky #RuralWriting #NatureWriting #LifeWriting #Memoir #FarmingWomen #WW2 #Countryside
December 3, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I've gobbled up the first few chapters of #GhostsOfTheFarm by @nicolawriting.bsky.social, and I'm loving it.
#BookSky #RuralWriting #NatureWriting #LifeWriting #Memoir #FarmingWomen #WW2 #Countryside
#BookSky #RuralWriting #NatureWriting #LifeWriting #Memoir #FarmingWomen #WW2 #Countryside
Reading this (out in Sept) leaves me with two convictions:
1) god we need more women in farming.
2) there is no better writer of English rural life than @nicolawriting.bsky.social. Her sensitivity, integrity, and artistry are quite simply unmatched.
#GhostsOfTheFarm
1) god we need more women in farming.
2) there is no better writer of English rural life than @nicolawriting.bsky.social. Her sensitivity, integrity, and artistry are quite simply unmatched.
#GhostsOfTheFarm
June 3, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reading this (out in Sept) leaves me with two convictions:
1) god we need more women in farming.
2) there is no better writer of English rural life than @nicolawriting.bsky.social. Her sensitivity, integrity, and artistry are quite simply unmatched.
#GhostsOfTheFarm
1) god we need more women in farming.
2) there is no better writer of English rural life than @nicolawriting.bsky.social. Her sensitivity, integrity, and artistry are quite simply unmatched.
#GhostsOfTheFarm
Thrilled that #GhostsoftheFarm is @caughtbytheriver.bsky.social’s BOTM … you can read an extract on The Bedroom Carpet Farm, here:
'I am eight years old.
I am a horse.
But. I am also its rider.'
Read an extract from @nicolawriting.bsky.social's ‘Ghosts of the Farm’ (@chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social) - our September Book of the Month www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/09/nico...
I am a horse.
But. I am also its rider.'
Read an extract from @nicolawriting.bsky.social's ‘Ghosts of the Farm’ (@chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social) - our September Book of the Month www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/09/nico...
September 18, 2025 at 6:28 AM
Thrilled that #GhostsoftheFarm is @caughtbytheriver.bsky.social’s BOTM … you can read an extract on The Bedroom Carpet Farm, here:
It’s book publication day for #GhostsoftheFarm! It’s been a lifetime’s companionable & instructional haunting, & I’m thrilled to bring these women from out the shadows, honour them & raise & address my own rural ghosts. Love & thanks to @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social & my early readers too x
September 30, 2025 at 7:05 AM
It’s book publication day for #GhostsoftheFarm! It’s been a lifetime’s companionable & instructional haunting, & I’m thrilled to bring these women from out the shadows, honour them & raise & address my own rural ghosts. Love & thanks to @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social & my early readers too x
Well Jon is very kind indeed. Am excited/ nervous that #GhostsoftheFarm has escaped the confines of the farmyard & is beginning to get out there…
Farm at Watendlath x @nicolawriting.bsky.social's latest: Ghosts of the Farm.
Albion's finest stylist sharpens her stylus.
Albion's finest stylist sharpens her stylus.
May 12, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Well Jon is very kind indeed. Am excited/ nervous that #GhostsoftheFarm has escaped the confines of the farmyard & is beginning to get out there…
Look! Nick has been on a little pilgrimage to see Julia White! Lovely views from the top of Gallows Down of her farm below … #GhostsoftheFarm
February 16, 2026 at 8:56 AM
Look! Nick has been on a little pilgrimage to see Julia White! Lovely views from the top of Gallows Down of her farm below … #GhostsoftheFarm
Really lovely to see #GhostsoftheFarm in Mathew's September round up!
Some weekend reading! The first part of my round up of new history and non-fiction titles in September is now up on the Broken Compass. Part two to follow tomorrow… mathewlyons.substack.com/p/22-books-t...
22 books to look out for in September (part one)
Upcoming history and non-fiction titles that have caught my eye
mathewlyons.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Really lovely to see #GhostsoftheFarm in Mathew's September round up!
Happy #InternationalWomensDay! Here’s a thread on some of the extraordinary women in my book, #GhostsoftheFarm: Farmers, Horse Breeders, Community Leaders & Change Makers, who had been all but forgotten. Their mid-life (& beyond) energy, humility & humour was an inspiration in itself… 1/21
March 8, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Happy #InternationalWomensDay! Here’s a thread on some of the extraordinary women in my book, #GhostsoftheFarm: Farmers, Horse Breeders, Community Leaders & Change Makers, who had been all but forgotten. Their mid-life (& beyond) energy, humility & humour was an inspiration in itself… 1/21
Oh! Excited for this @timjerrome.bsky.social Did lots of research for #GhostsoftheFarm @themerl.bsky.social My book tells the true story of several lesbian & queer women farmers who were adored & active members of their rural communities. Hope still to return to The Merl. Hope it’s in the bookshop!
🐏 New Absolute Units 🐏
Same-sex relationships have always been part of rural England, but they've been underrepresented in our collections.
In the first of 2 episodes, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares his work tracing queer rural lives in The MERL archives.
merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...
Same-sex relationships have always been part of rural England, but they've been underrepresented in our collections.
In the first of 2 episodes, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares his work tracing queer rural lives in The MERL archives.
merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...
October 17, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Oh! Excited for this @timjerrome.bsky.social Did lots of research for #GhostsoftheFarm @themerl.bsky.social My book tells the true story of several lesbian & queer women farmers who were adored & active members of their rural communities. Hope still to return to The Merl. Hope it’s in the bookshop!
Absolutely thrilled to be Shortlisted for @rjaward.bsky.social! And in brilliant company. Lovely to have that white horse sticker on #GhostsoftheFarm. My farming women & their workers & families of all those decades ago, would be so proud! (As would younger me.) @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social
February 6, 2026 at 12:58 PM
Absolutely thrilled to be Shortlisted for @rjaward.bsky.social! And in brilliant company. Lovely to have that white horse sticker on #GhostsoftheFarm. My farming women & their workers & families of all those decades ago, would be so proud! (As would younger me.) @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social
Such a story here. A story that is in my book, #GhostsoftheFarm in fact. This wood was part clear-felled a couple of years ago, despite my stringent, lone protestations, with other woods, in spring, without an environmental assessment. All legal, grants enabling it. Last pops of Willow Tit in Berks.
Bit shocked by the heavy handed felling in parts of Combe Wood though! Once was a Willow Tit nest there 😢
February 15, 2026 at 2:20 PM
Such a story here. A story that is in my book, #GhostsoftheFarm in fact. This wood was part clear-felled a couple of years ago, despite my stringent, lone protestations, with other woods, in spring, without an environmental assessment. All legal, grants enabling it. Last pops of Willow Tit in Berks.
Fascinating thread on our bucolic perceptions of the (recent) past agricultural landscape & the reality. Came across this time & again in writing new book, #GhostsoftheFarm. No denying we’ve decimated so much wildlife in pursuit of food production, but Shifting Baseline Syndrome is a complex beast!
In 1956 some of this scene was already mainly memory in England, Corncrake had become rare with horse drawn mechanical reaper. Corncockle was a seed contaminant, better seed cleaning it was gone, Cornflower and other arable weeds like poppy started to be eradicated by 2,4-D introduced in 1946.
Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘Life in the Corn’ (Shell Guide, 1956)
Artist: John Leigh-Pemberton
‘Life in the Corn’ (Shell Guide, 1956)
Artist: John Leigh-Pemberton
August 7, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Fascinating thread on our bucolic perceptions of the (recent) past agricultural landscape & the reality. Came across this time & again in writing new book, #GhostsoftheFarm. No denying we’ve decimated so much wildlife in pursuit of food production, but Shifting Baseline Syndrome is a complex beast!
Taunton / Somerset peeps! Am at #TauntonLiteraryFestival with the lovely @brendonbooks.bsky.social & in an incredible line up. Would LOVE to see you for all things #GhostsoftheFarm @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social #booksky
October 16, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Taunton / Somerset peeps! Am at #TauntonLiteraryFestival with the lovely @brendonbooks.bsky.social & in an incredible line up. Would LOVE to see you for all things #GhostsoftheFarm @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social #booksky
I love @lissakevans.bsky.social’s writing, so my goodness, this means a lot! #GhostsoftheFarm, coming September 30th. #booksky @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social
July 25, 2025 at 8:04 AM
I love @lissakevans.bsky.social’s writing, so my goodness, this means a lot! #GhostsoftheFarm, coming September 30th. #booksky @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social
Took my #GhostsoftheFarm to Oxford, to speak their voices & link them with climate change, women’s agency, land justice & wildlife loss. Huge thanks to Rich at Electric Breeze & @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social &, if you’re going to write about fatal anthropocentricity, you’d best be able to say it.
July 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Took my #GhostsoftheFarm to Oxford, to speak their voices & link them with climate change, women’s agency, land justice & wildlife loss. Huge thanks to Rich at Electric Breeze & @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social &, if you’re going to write about fatal anthropocentricity, you’d best be able to say it.
Friends! The story of Julia, Doris, Marguerite & me is 3wks old! Would love to get their incredible, forgotten story out there & into the hands of readers. People have said wonderful & generous things, including @sallycoulthard.bsky.social …1/2 #booksky #GhostsoftheFarm Grateful for a repost! x
October 18, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Friends! The story of Julia, Doris, Marguerite & me is 3wks old! Would love to get their incredible, forgotten story out there & into the hands of readers. People have said wonderful & generous things, including @sallycoulthard.bsky.social …1/2 #booksky #GhostsoftheFarm Grateful for a repost! x
Delighted to have a feature on #GhostsoftheFarm in #BBCCountryfile A story that revealed itself in a filmic, elegiac, dusty light, & truly haunted me. God I'd love to see this as a film. I can picture my forgotten women, zipping each other into dresses, forsaking breeches, to gales of laughter.
December 6, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Delighted to have a feature on #GhostsoftheFarm in #BBCCountryfile A story that revealed itself in a filmic, elegiac, dusty light, & truly haunted me. God I'd love to see this as a film. I can picture my forgotten women, zipping each other into dresses, forsaking breeches, to gales of laughter.
Miss Julia White learnt to plough with horses, aged 40, from Jack Tucker in wartime, in the fields I know & love. I learnt (in theory) from her words, & as I recreated & reanimated them, & walked those furrows. Here’s an extract & a song for #PloughMonday from #GhostsoftheFarm, & a photo of Jack 1/4
January 12, 2026 at 8:13 PM
Miss Julia White learnt to plough with horses, aged 40, from Jack Tucker in wartime, in the fields I know & love. I learnt (in theory) from her words, & as I recreated & reanimated them, & walked those furrows. Here’s an extract & a song for #PloughMonday from #GhostsoftheFarm, & a photo of Jack 1/4
Book launch news! Thrilled to be in conversation with Sarah Langford, 3rd October, with the fabulous @hungerfordbookshop.bsky.social @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social Tickets selling fast! More dates coming soon! #GhostsoftheFarm #booksky www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nicola-che...
August 13, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Book launch news! Thrilled to be in conversation with Sarah Langford, 3rd October, with the fabulous @hungerfordbookshop.bsky.social @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social Tickets selling fast! More dates coming soon! #GhostsoftheFarm #booksky www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nicola-che...
Just finished @nicolawriting.bsky.social’s #GhostsOfTheFarm. Bloody hell, she’s only done it again—another staggeringly beautiful book. I couldn’t stop thinking: “God, I wish I’d written that line!” No one does elegiac like she does; tender, subtle, exquisite. #naturewriting
December 6, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Just finished @nicolawriting.bsky.social’s #GhostsOfTheFarm. Bloody hell, she’s only done it again—another staggeringly beautiful book. I couldn’t stop thinking: “God, I wish I’d written that line!” No one does elegiac like she does; tender, subtle, exquisite. #naturewriting
Had the best time @realfarmed.bsky.social Literary Season, leading & working with some lovely writers in the gorgeous setting of this #RegenerativeAg farm. Good food, inspiration & company. Thank you @fionamountainwrite.bsky.social (who didn’t give away any #TheArchers secrets) #GhostsoftheFarm
October 15, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Had the best time @realfarmed.bsky.social Literary Season, leading & working with some lovely writers in the gorgeous setting of this #RegenerativeAg farm. Good food, inspiration & company. Thank you @fionamountainwrite.bsky.social (who didn’t give away any #TheArchers secrets) #GhostsoftheFarm
Join me @waterstones.bsky.social Romsey, Thursday 6th November, when I’ll be chatting about discovering some incredible, forgotten, rural women, cowgirls, farm wildlife & what happened when the farmgate was shut on women 80yrs ago. #GhostsoftheFarm @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social
October 28, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Join me @waterstones.bsky.social Romsey, Thursday 6th November, when I’ll be chatting about discovering some incredible, forgotten, rural women, cowgirls, farm wildlife & what happened when the farmgate was shut on women 80yrs ago. #GhostsoftheFarm @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social
Grateful to @lauraparker.bsky.social for this wonderful full page review of #GhostsoftheFarm @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social in www.countrylife.co.uk 8 Oct. ‘The author is at her best when immersed in rural detail… Mrs Chester has found something truly haunting.’ #booksky
October 10, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Grateful to @lauraparker.bsky.social for this wonderful full page review of #GhostsoftheFarm @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social in www.countrylife.co.uk 8 Oct. ‘The author is at her best when immersed in rural detail… Mrs Chester has found something truly haunting.’ #booksky
Dear Honey Bee is leaving the Big House too. Left to us in a will, she features in #GhostsoftheFarm with so many other horses. Ever the aristocrat, despite being 34, she pranced through the orchard & empty coach & stable yard, dragging me to her new village field without looking back. #booksky
October 25, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Dear Honey Bee is leaving the Big House too. Left to us in a will, she features in #GhostsoftheFarm with so many other horses. Ever the aristocrat, despite being 34, she pranced through the orchard & empty coach & stable yard, dragging me to her new village field without looking back. #booksky