A poet who escaped to the country to become a novice smallholder in an ancient farmhouse, and to populate it with 150 animals, most of them rescued, is launching her first full collection later this month. Di Slaney will be reading from Reward for Winter, which includes accounts of her triumphs and tribulations, a biography of one of her chickens, and historic stories from the Bilsthorpe area, at Nottingham’s independent Five Leaves Bookshop on Wednesday 23 March, and Bilsthorpe heritage museum on 26 March.

The first poem in the collection talks of her rescued animals: “Bring me the wobbly, the scabby, the beaten, / the oldies, the lost, the could-have-been-eaten, / the wayward, the strays, the nightmares to tame, / the cringers, the timid, the ones with no name.” The collection includes a number of historic tales gleaned from the area, with poems about an Elizabethan witch trial, a concealed king, and 17th century adultery. 

Slaney, who is also co-owner of Candlestick Press, includes in her acknowledgements at the end of the book: “I am especially grateful to Alan Slaney for helping to make my smallholding dream a reality, when most sensible husbands would have packed their bags and petitioned for divorce.” Reward for Winter is published by Valley Press.