Emilie Carles was born in 1900 in south eastern France. Against the odds, she trained as a teacher and pursued this career alongside farming and bringing up a family. An ardent pacifist all her life, in later years she became a fierce environmental campaigner and successfully protected her home, the idyllic Claree valley, from the hands of developers. Emilie Carles enchanting autobiography tells of a world that has largely disappeared. She captures the comedy and ferocious pride of rural life with an ebullience and wit which are quite irresistible.