Product Description
Charles Wood is passionate about Somerset; an English county rich of landscape if not of wallet; easy on the eyes even if you have to rub them occasionally. Take a stroll on a bright morning as cows mooch in buttercup meadows and bees drone amongst cider apple blossom, you would rightly think this an idyll of milk and honey; an inspiration for the poetic. However peer a little closer and you’ll discover the need for caution.
There are many dangers. A pheasant may arrive on your lap through the open car window. Alternatively you could become puggle ‘eaded, run down by hunters in pursuit of a rag, stung by a dumbledore, tupped by a hobby horse, consume badger stew or radioactive fish, be bonked by a cricket ball or have rigor mortis at a bus stop. And then there are the dialect gossipers often predisposed to act a little oddly; characters who seem almost organically grown from the soil, be it upon high moor, hilltop, levels or coast who share tales of red deer, hare and eel.
However both the places and the people are haplessly submitting to the meddling and uniformity that pervade England today. Progress is beginning to nibble. A blend of the satirical and the poignant, this is book for the long suffering local, the goggle-eyed grockle, the filmstar bearing guns, the well-heeled city type seeking rustic charm, or merely the inquisitive intrigued by ‘How to Survive in Somerset’.
Charles Wood gave up the legal profession, and the stress of work in Libya and Hong Kong, yearning for the artistic life. For the past twenty years he has just about managed to avoid wearing a tie to work or getting grubby. Instead he has preferred to eke out an existence in the Somerset custom of self-employment. As a self-taught documentary filmmaker he has made over thirty films.
Charles has also found time to be full-time Dad of four, a writer of fairy tales, an illustrator, a part-time college lecturer, a part-time school teacher, an occasional broadcaster on BBC Somerset Sound, a cameraman for Westcountry television news and have a heart transplant. He now admits to an enjoyment of poddling through the lighter side of life’s rich tapestry, relieved that he has never been bankrupt. Charles Wood lives with his family in the Somerset town of Wiveliscombe.
There are many dangers. A pheasant may arrive on your lap through the open car window. Alternatively you could become puggle ‘eaded, run down by hunters in pursuit of a rag, stung by a dumbledore, tupped by a hobby horse, consume badger stew or radioactive fish, be bonked by a cricket ball or have rigor mortis at a bus stop. And then there are the dialect gossipers often predisposed to act a little oddly; characters who seem almost organically grown from the soil, be it upon high moor, hilltop, levels or coast who share tales of red deer, hare and eel.
However both the places and the people are haplessly submitting to the meddling and uniformity that pervade England today. Progress is beginning to nibble. A blend of the satirical and the poignant, this is book for the long suffering local, the goggle-eyed grockle, the filmstar bearing guns, the well-heeled city type seeking rustic charm, or merely the inquisitive intrigued by ‘How to Survive in Somerset’.
Charles Wood gave up the legal profession, and the stress of work in Libya and Hong Kong, yearning for the artistic life. For the past twenty years he has just about managed to avoid wearing a tie to work or getting grubby. Instead he has preferred to eke out an existence in the Somerset custom of self-employment. As a self-taught documentary filmmaker he has made over thirty films.
Charles has also found time to be full-time Dad of four, a writer of fairy tales, an illustrator, a part-time college lecturer, a part-time school teacher, an occasional broadcaster on BBC Somerset Sound, a cameraman for Westcountry television news and have a heart transplant. He now admits to an enjoyment of poddling through the lighter side of life’s rich tapestry, relieved that he has never been bankrupt. Charles Wood lives with his family in the Somerset town of Wiveliscombe.
