This is not my land : 30 Years on a Small Cotswolds Farm

Award-winning travel writing from Caroline Mills, an enchanting narrative about three decades on a small farm in the heart of the English countryside.

In 1995, when Caroline and her partner Paul were in their early 20s, they bought 65 acres of land on the edge of the north Cotswolds. What began as simply land—something to make a living from—transformed into something far more meaningful the moment they gave it a name. Walking repeatedly around the same five meadows and woodland across thirty years, Caroline witnesses how the farm and surrounding landscape evolve and reveal their secrets. In almost 500 years, this land has had just four owners, including King Henry VIII.

Through a series of vivid vignettes, Caroline brings the English countryside to life in intimate detail. Discover how she and Paul manage and expand a designated wildlife site, build an eco-house, and transition to organic certification before it became fashionable again. Meet the barn owl that tracks up and down the meadow at dusk, the plumes of chimney sweeper moths in spring, the migrant redwings awaited each autumn, and the skylark whose arrival after twenty years of waiting brings ecstatic joy. Through raising a family integral to the farm's identity, Caroline uncovers an extraordinary 1,000-year history and develops a profound sense of place.

Ultimately, Caroline realises that what she once regarded as merely 'land' is an increasingly rare and exceptional mosaic landscape. She falls in love with it so deeply that it becomes unthinkable to her that anyone would wish to harm it—least of all those with the power and duty to protect it. This is slow travel in its most microcosmic form: finding an extraordinary world within five fields and a wood.