French Cows and Four Kisses

Description

Having worked as a dairy farmer in the UK for 30 years, and achieved the top job in his profession, Philip longed to put a lifetime of experience into practice for himself, instead of being at the beck and call of the landed gentry and their land agents. The opportunity presented itself in an unusual fashion; the estate he ran was to be split up and sold off, and he was made redundant. Follow Philip's wonderful adventure into the centre of France, to the beautiful dairy farm of Les Marais; 75 hectares of softly undulating land with woods and a 5-hectare lake filled with coarse fish and ragondin (or coypu). Read on as he tackled the differences in agricultural techniques, whilst learning the language, mastered cooking acceptably for his French neighbours, and found out that falling in love with France was not the same for everybody. In this sequel to his highly entertaining first book, Dairy Cows and Duck Races, Philip Dixon shares the next chapter of his eventful farming career.

Philip Dixon's formative years were spent around the banks of the River Tyne, in the north of England and later on farms in the area in the 1950s and 1960s. He describes himself as "first and foremost a dairy farmer," and has spent much of his working life farming and managing dairies in England and France, and has also owned and run a chambre d'hote in France. Besides farming, Philip has renovated houses, appeared on television and radio and had articles written about him in Farmers Weekly. He has four children of his own and is stepfather to three more, all of whom are now adults. He and Heather now live in Dorset, with their two dogs, Pip the Springer Spaniel and Dude the miniature Schnauzer.

An exceptional and unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library biography collections. - Midwest Book Review.