Author James Russell contacted me about research for a new book about cider. A previous book called “Manmade Eden – Historic Orchards in Somerset and Gloucestershire” is well worth a mention at this point. It features interviews with John Thatcher and Julian Temperley, lots of great pictures and material on the history of cider that I think readers would enjoy.
Manmade Eden is published by Redcliffe Press ( available by mail order) or through the Amazon ukcider bookstore ( out of stock last time I looked )
Manmade Eden: Historic Orchards in Somerset and Gloucestershire
The blurb says:
The West Country is famed for its orchards, but why are they here? As the campaign to save and celebrate English orchards gathers momentum, this book explores their fascinating and – until now – neglected history. Why is Glastonbury known as Avalon, the Isle of Apples? What made Redstreak Cyder the most popular drink of the seventeenth century? Who was Dr Ashmead, cultivator of the connoisseur’s favourite apple, Ashmead’s Kernel? How did a Somerset vicar come to make cider for Queen Victoria? This rich, wide-ranging book takes a long historic look at changing fashions and fortunes – asking why thirteenth-century monks and Edwardian landowners planted orchards, and why post-war governments paid farmers to destroy them. The author argues that Apple Day (October 21) should be made our national autumn holiday. He examines the role of Common Ground, the National Trust and other organisations in preserving and restoring orchards, and asks: what can we do to make our orchards as profitable as they were in centuries past?
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