Country gentlemen, bird-watching vicars and farmers have traditionally been the chroniclers of the British countryside. This book introduces a very different point of view. We see the changing seasons - and the 20th century revolution in the long-settled ways of rural life - through the sharp eyes of ten exceptional women including a leading suffragette, a classical scholar, an artist with her own large farm and a climber's daughter who turned to writing when her children grew up and left home.