Rural by Rebecca Smith
In her nonfiction debut, Rebecca Smith charts working class histories through stories of land and rural life
Rebecca Smith’s debut non-fiction book Rural blends nature writing and memoir to tell a story of belonging, ownership and the changing landscapes of rural working-class life. Smith’s own experience growing up in a tied house, and her family’s continued relationship with land and forestry, are interwoven with the histories and experiences of coal and slate miners, foresters, textile workers, and reservoir builders across communities in Scotland, Wales and England.
At the centre of the book is something core to Smith’s own experience: as rural villages transform into playgrounds for the rich and second homes proliferate, those who for generations have shaped – and been shaped by – the countryside are priced out. What is it is like, then, to belong to the countryside but be forced out and unable to return? Melding the voices of past and present through interviews, her own travels, and lives captured in historical archived documents, Smith explores the precarity of working-class rural life, from the Highland Clearances to the building and deconstruction of industrial settlements, the coronavirus pandemic and the rise of Airbnb. The story presented is honest and at times hopeful rather than bleak, and she does not romanticise working-class histories. Rather, Smith centres the deep connections and roots to the land felt by rural communities through the perspectives of those who have created it, her rich, astute descriptions bringing landscapes and histories to life.