COBBETT the Countryman will be the theme of this year’s William Cobbett Annual Memorial Lecture, to be given by journalist and author Anna Pavord at the Farnham Maltings on Friday, October 5.

William Cobbett was not just famous for his political campaigning; he had a long and close relationship with the countryside and was particularly good at ‘reading a landscape’ and understanding its problems and possibilities. He could tell which crops would flourish and which would not by looking at the soil, the rivers, the birds, the wildlife and the woodlands.

He wrote extensively about what he saw in his Rural Rides, but he also wrote extensively in The Cottage Economy and The English Gardener about how to grow and make things. Both were best sellers.

The English Gardener is a self-help manual, concerned with things to eat, not with flowers and ornamental plants, whereas The Cottage Economy is designed to help the rural family, not the owners of large estates.

It explains, in Cobbett’s own words: “The brewing of beer, the making of bread, the rearing of pigs and poultry, the keeping of a cow, the curing of bacon; and in short, everything necessary to teach a small family how to make the most of a little bit of ground, and how to live well by good management.”

In her illustrated lecture Anna Pavord will discuss and comment on some of the issues which concerned Cobbett the Countryman.

Anna has had a long and varied career- including writing for the Guardian for 20 years and contributing to Country Life. She worked in radio and TV for many years and was the writer and presenter of ‘Flowering Passions’ a 10 part series on Channel 4.

Anna is also currently the gardening correspondent of the Independent, a regular contributor to the RHS’s The Garden, and is an associate editor of Gardens Illustrated magazine. Among her best known Books are The Tulip (1999), The Curious Gardener (2010) and Landskipping (2016) - which has a chapter on Cobbett. In Nov 2017 she was also a castaway on Desert Island Discs.

There are a few tickets left for the October 5 lecture - in the Maltings’ Tindle Room at 8pm - available for £10 from the Maltings’ box office by calling 01252 745444.