About this item
21st-Century Yokel explores the way we can be tied inescapably to landscape, whether we like it or not, often through our family and our past. It's not quite a nature book, not quite a humor book, not quite a family memoir, not quite folklore, not quite social history, not quite a collection of essays, but a bit of all seven. It contains owls, badgers, ponies, beavers, otters, bats, bees, scarecrows, dogs, ghosts, Tom's loud and excitable dad and, yes, even a few cats. It's full of Devon's local folklore - the ancient kind, and the everyday kind - and provincial places and small things. But what emerges from this focus on the small are themes that are broader and bigger and more definitive. The book's language is colloquial and easy and its 11 chapters are discursive and wide-ranging, rambling even.
About the Author
Since quitting his job as The Guardian's Rock Critic in 2000, Tom Cox has written eight books, including the Sunday Times top ten bestseller The Good, The Bad And The Furry, and the brand new follow-up Close Encounters Of The Furred Kind. His account of his year as Britain's most inept golf professional, Bring Me The Head Of Sergio Garcia, was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book Of The Year Award in 2007. Tom gave up journalism in summer 2015 and now writes fiction and pieces about nature, folklore and the British countryside for his voluntary subscription website www.tom-cox.com. He hosts a monthly radio show on the experimental rural radio station Soundart not far from where he lives, in rural Devon."Tom Cox is a very funny writer." - Kate Atkinson"Made me laugh out loud." - David Sedaris"Tom Cox writes brilliantly about golf." William Boyd
