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Middleland

Dispatches from the Borders

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Middleland

Written by: Rory Stewart
Narrated by: Rory Stewart
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Urgent and inspiring stories of rural Britain today, from the Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling author of Politics on the Edge

Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade as MP for Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and the Border. As he came to know and love this part of Cumbria, he found inspiration in the beauty of its landscape, its rugged history as a frontierland, and in the spirit of its people.

Drawing on pieces originally written for a local newspaper, Middleland is an urgent and inspiring portrait of rural Britain today – a place caught in tensions between farming and the natural world, between the need to preserve and to grow, between local and national politics – as well as a timeless evocation of the history, people and landscape of Cumbria.
These are stories of beauty and ingenuity but also a hint of what a better politics might be.

‘A triumph’ LITERARY REVIEW

‘A rare and life-affirming story of searching and finding our place to be and to cherish’ MICHAEL MORPURGO

‘Urgent and inspiring… Deeply rooted in history and the land, personal, wise and often funny’ CAROLINE LUCAS

© Rory Stewart 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Europe Great Britain Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Sociology

Critic Reviews

Rory Stewart has written a remarkable book about community and countryside, his community, his countryside. It is both telling and tender. He is treading in the footsteps of Thomas Hardy and Edward Thomas in his understanding of our need to belong and to contribute. A rare and life-affirming story of searching and finding our place to be and to cherish. (Michael Morpurgo)
Urgent and inspiring, Middleland is at once a hymn to the beauty of the Cumbrian landscape, a testament to the spirit of its people, and a powerful argument for political reform. Deeply rooted in history and the land, personal, wise and often funny, this is a heartfelt celebration of local people and place, and an invitation to imagine a different kind of politics. (Caroline Lucas)
A triumph... [His columns] are very good indeed. His accounts of Cumbria as a sort of lost land are stark pieces of reportage... To read Middleland is to understand that rural England and those who make it ought to be protected... We are left with a distinct feeling that this country would be a better place if all MPs loved their constituencies as Rory Stewart clearly loved his.
Full of intelligence and panache
Stewart was not your usual politician, and these eloquent articles… skilfully edited into a very readable diary, range widely across the constituency…. A serendipitous treat… [An] enjoyable book
A thoughtful love letter to his former constituency... He writes with a wonderful familiarity of the region... refreshingly honest
Middleland is the latest instalment in the ongoing Rory Stewart project, which asks: what is my country, and what can I do for it?... His writing is limpid, reflective, often beautiful.
A moving, grounded look at rural Britain
Stewart sees Cumbria's glory... [his] writing on all these subjects combines erudition, a fine turn of phrase... disarming admissions of fallibility and a certain amount of backing into the limelight.
[A] fascinating and honest collection of daily anecdotes and stories of everyday folk, and of how the best intentions often end up on stony ground due to the realities of national politics
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