Nicola Chester and the Ghosts of the Farm

Join us for an evening to celebrate Nicola Chester's latest book Ghosts of the Farm - Two Women's Journeys Through Time, Land & Community. 

Nicola has been called an ‘early, female pioneer of the new nature writing’ (Dominic Couzens). She and her family are tenants in an estate workers cottage at the heart of the North Wessex Downs and Nicola has been writing professionally for over 21 years, after winning BBC Wildlife Magazine‘s Nature Writer of the Year award. She is the Award Winning author of On Gallows Down, the RSPB’s first and longest-running female columnist, a columnist for BBC Countryfile magazine on rural working life and issues, and a Guardian Country Diarist. Nicola was also one of the judges of the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize, 2025.

Her new book, Ghosts of the Farm, two women's journeys through time, land and community, is a rural narrative between two women in two different eras who both wanted to become farmers. Set mostly in the fields & farms below Gallows Down, Ghosts of the Farm is a delicious, urgent kind of haunting. It tells the true story of Miss White, a single woman in the 1940s, who hitched up her caravan to pursue her farming dreams. Nicola will be in conversation with our Agricultural Lead, Kate Henderson, talking about her new book, and women who want to become farmers through the ages. 

Nicola is also running a Wild Writing Workshop before the evening event, please click here to find out more.

About the evening 

The talk will begin at 6pm sharp, and the bar will be open before then for drinks. 

Books will be available to purchase on the evening, with a chance to get your book dedicated by the author.

This event is in collaboration with Jaffé & Neale Bookshop. 

Cancellation Policy

We understand that there may be times where you need to cancel your booking. Our cancellation policy is outlined here.

We like to take photos and occasionally videos of our events to use on our website and social media, please let us know if you do not want to be photographed.