Pastures New

About the book

The delightfully down-to-earth debut novel from Clare Balding.

Sometimes home is where you least expect it…

Alex has perfected the art of dodging responsibility during her almost 40 years ― until an unexpected letter turns her life upside down.

She’s inherited a crumbling sheep farm in deepest, wettest Wales. This was not her life plan. Not at all.

Now, her closest companion is a grumpy Welsh terrier, she’s speed-reading An Idiot’s Guide to Farming, and her arrival has set the village gossip mill spinning. With the farm near collapse and its community now relying on her, Alex sets out to uncover the truth behind her mysterious inheritance. Then she can finally get back to the carefree life she thought she wanted.

But as secrets surface, Alex finds her heart pulling her in a direction she never saw coming.

Will she pack her bags – or has she landed exactly where she’s meant to be?

Brimming with the warmth and wit that has made Clare Balding one of our best-loved TV personalities, Pastures New is a joyful celebration of new beginnings, community, and the delightful surprises of rural life.

Acclaim for Clare Balding's books:

'The reading equivalent of snuggling by the fire with a labrador'The Guardian

‘Funny and moving, James Herriot meets David Sedaris’The Times

‘Forthright, thoughtful, funny … reads like a Jilly Cooper novel’Sunday Times