On Saturday 21st May, Max Minerva’s bookshop will be hosting writer and journalist Anna Jones, as she introduce her gground-breaking book about the urban and rural cultural division - Divide.

About the book

This book is a plea and a call to action. It warns that unless we learn to accept and respect our social, cultural and political differences as town and country people, we are never going to solve the chronic problems present in our food system and environment.

As we stare down the barrel of climate change, only farmers - who manage two thirds of the UK’s landscape - working together with conservation groups can create a healthier food system and bring back nature in diverse abundance. But this fledgling progress is hindered and hamstrung by simplistic debates that still stoke conflict between conservative rural communities and the liberal green movement.

Each chapter, from Home and Work, Politics and Diversity to Animals and Food, Environment and Community, explores a different aspect of the urban/rural disconnect, weaving case studies and research with Anna’s personal stories of growing up on a small, upland farm.

About the author

Anna Jones is a journalist, broadcaster, blogger and Nuffield Farming Scholar. She has been heard on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today, On Your Farm, Costing the Earth and BBC World Service, and is an occasional freelance producer/director on BBC One’s Countryfile. She has also written for the Guardian and the farming trade press.

Growing up on the Welsh Borders, from at least five generations of farmers on her father’s side and a long line of butchers and farm labourers on her mother’s, Anna’s heritage is deeply rooted in working class, conservative, rural values.

About the event

We intend for the event to take place in the park's outdoor auditorium, with your ticket booking a seat within the auditorium. In the event of bad weather we will move into the park's indoor event space.

The park is open to the public during the event so other people may watch from a standing position outside of the auditorium. We would appreciate it if you would buy a ticket rather than watching for free from outside the auditorium, to show support for the work of both Anna and the park.