Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann - Softcover

Baker, Harriet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141998598 ISBN 13: 9780141998596

Publisher: Penguin, 2025

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD

‘A fascinating look at the impact of country home-making on the lives and work of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann. It's beautifully written, gorgeously produced, absorbing and full of insight’ Sarah Waters, Guardian

In Rural Hours, Harriet Baker tells the story of three very different women, each of whom moved to the countryside and was forever changed by it. We encounter them at quiet moments – pausing to look at an insect on the windowsill; jotting down a recipe; or digging for potatoes, dirt beneath their nails. Slowly, we start to see transformations unfold: Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehmann emerge before us as the passionate, visionary writers we know them to be.

Following long periods of creative uncertainty and private disappointment, each of Baker's subjects is invigorated by new landscapes, and the daily trials and small pleasures of making a home; slowly, they embark on new experiments in form, in feeling and in living that would resonate throughout the rest of their lives. In the country, each woman finds her path: to convalescence and recovery; to sexual and political awakening; and, above all, to personal freedom and creative flourishing.

In graceful, fluid prose, Baker vividly recreates these overlooked episodes, revealing how ‘rural hours’ defined the lives of three pioneering writers. In the end, she shows, their example is an invitation to us all: to recognize the radical and creative potential of rural places, and find new enchantment in the rituals of each day.

‘Warm, perceptive, eloquent … Like Baker’s protagonists in their countryside boltholes I felt “socketed” by this book. I know I’ll return to it again and again’ Lauren Elkin

‘A meditative exploration of renewal, visionariness, grievous loss, and love – cool and passionate, fragile and enduring’ David Hayden

About this title

About the Author

Harriet Baker has written for the London Review of Books, the Paris Review, the New Statesman, the TLS, Apollo and frieze. She read English at Oxford and holds a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London. In 2018, she was awarded the Biographers’ Club Tony Lothian Prize. She lives in Bristol.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0141998598
• ISBN 13: 9780141998596
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384