The Countryside Companion

Tom Stephenson is the editor of Odhams’ The Countryside Companion, which is a thoroughly egalitarian guide to British country life and practices for those who may be going into it for the first time. He was a journalist and a prominent activist for rights of way, responsible for, among other gifts to humanity, the Pennine Way.  The chapters cover birds, flowers, animals, insects, the seashore, rural architecture, rights of way (naturally), seasonal folklore, how to go camping, stiles and their characteristics, country crafts and how to read a map. The readers are expected to have a serious interest in these subjects, and the influence of the army (even though Stephenson was a former CO) can be seen in the brisk and careful instructions on digging a latrine and how to interpret contour lines.

''I enjoyed the camping and caravaning chapter most (most of my childhood summer holidays were spent in a caravan on the Moray Firth), because the photographs confirm that caravan interior design didn’t change much between the 1940s and the 1970s. Women are photographed mainly in interior, civilised domestic settings, while the men are climbing stiles and shaving in buckets.''

Odhams Press Limited, 1946.