Search - Various :: Country Living: a Musical Tour of Rural Memories

The constantly changing face of the countryside has had a great effect on British writers and painters and there can not be that many landscapes that have not inspired or influenced, at least, one famous painter or author. Indeed, one is still aware of the unspoilt rural life being the principal theme of many works of art. From Daphne du Maurier's Cornwall, 'Constable Country' (the countryside and villages on the Essex/Suffolk border) to James Herriot's beloved North Yokshire and Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge ( a thinly-disguised Dorchester). 'I love every stile and stump and lane.as long as I am able to hold a brush I shall never cease to paint them.' John Constable immortalised the countryside and villages of his native Stour Valley on canvas. It is located on the border of Suffolk and Essex and is known universally through his inimitable paintings. It is 'Constable Country'. The breathtaking beauty of North Yorkshire and the lives of its inhabitants are wonderfully brought to life in the heart-touching novels of James Herriot, each one dealing with the experiences of a country vet. He began writing at the age of fifty as a release from his veterinary work and based the bulk of his tales on real life incidents and characters that he had met in the moors and dales around Thirsk. Thirsk is in the centre of what is now known as 'Herriot Country', with the Yorkshire Dales National Park to the west and the North York Moors National Park to the east. The lovely Dales, with tiny villages and isolated farmsteads dotted around, will be familiar to millions of viewers of the TV adaptations of his books, 'All Creatures Great and Small', set in the fictional village of Askrigg. Favourite songs form the world of broadcasting, along with some of the best of British light music create an album with a distinctly country flavour, from Barwick Green (The Archers) to the Sleepy Lagoon (Desert Island Discs). A delightful evocation of English country life. Britain is a relatively small country and yet it contains an infinite variety of scenery. You do not have to look too far to discover a different scene and, quite often, a totally different type of landscape. We hope that our programme of picturesque, musical landscapes, which fittingly opens with The Archers' signature tune, will act as an appropriate souvenir of 'our green and pleasant land'.