Becoming an English Country Squire

Crumbling heritage buildings, rural vistas threatened by suburban sprawl, government and big-business bureaucrats, absconding tenants, trespassers and litterbugs...but also green pastures and fertile fields, woods and lakes heaving with wildlife, abounding sons and other domesticated animals, fine n [...]
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Crumbling heritage buildings, rural vistas threatened by suburban sprawl, government and big-business bureaucrats, absconding tenants, trespassers and litterbugs...but also green pastures and fertile fields, woods and lakes heaving with wildlife, abounding sons and other domesticated animals, fine new friends and neighbours...Becoming an English Country Squire is the lightly-disguised but largely-true story of W. d'Arcy Henry and his wife Nikki, both American born and raised, buying and coming to live in Heartsease Hall - one of only a handfull of essentially-original, historic country estates in the UK remaining in private hands - and surviving to tell the tale. The book generally parades an idyllic lifestyle. But as even Squire Henry admits, 'lifestyle' - today so often synonymous with 'material security' - is no substitute for spiritual security. This back-story is wryly carried forward by his imagined sidekick Alter-natis, and Sir Jacob Festing, the Hall's resident ghost, who strive to keep him on the straight and narrow. In this respect, it's a gentle riff on morality and money.