Red Rag To A Bull: Rural Life in an Urban Age Paperback – 14 May 2023

I loved this book as it really brought to life a corner of Galloway that I am very fond of and passionately but objectively illustrated a way of life that has sadly become foreign to so many people our country. Jamie doesn't try to defend all of the country ways of life but he does make a very sound case for leaving be those who know best how to protect and enhance the countryside. Above all Jamie clearly loves his life and makes his points in a very engaging and amusing way. The life of a farmer is a pretty challenging one at any time with immense frustrations but it does have it's hilarious moments too! I heartily recommend you read this book

An honest down to earth book of how farming & the countryside is. Can totally relate to all the author says. A great read.

I don't share the author's enthusiasm for hunting but I can share and empathise with so many of his other experiences. I marked long passages with red biro and the word "Yes!"

Urban and rural society don't work in the same way and, increasingly, the urban majority have little awareness of this. The author gives a passionate explanation of much rural and farming life, what it is and why it matters, particularly so in the present day. He explains why the single issue approach is detrimental to the countryside we all want to use and appreciate. It should be essential reading for all policy makers.

Jamie Blackett has written a moving and eloquent account of his families life and daily challenges as farmers in 21 century Galloway. Struggles with recalcitrant farm animals, the weather, obstructive septic tanks, manipulative cottage tenants and most of all The Big State, make for a funny, but sometimes melancholic account, of rural life in the modern world. However the underlying thread throughout the tale is one of the growing divide between the rural and urban populations in this small and overcrowded island, something every true countryman, or woman, feels to their core. Jamie is a retired soldier, farmer, family man and scholar with a deep love for the countryside and rural way of life. I applaud this book and encourage all who hold the same dear to delve into its pages.

This book deserves a top prize....It was the most interesting and above all informative literary work I have ever read about our Countryside.....It is also full of humour and makes for one of those rare books you cannot put down...I highly recommend it to all those who love country life and also to all those who want to learn about how the countryside really works in todays age .....HIGHLY RECOMMENDED...IT WON'T DISAPPOINT.

Very good read

'Red Rag to a Bull' reminded me of those opinion-forming Russian19th century 'state of the nation' books such as Turgenev's 'A Hunter's Notes'. In this case, though, it is the hapless landowner rather than the benighted rural population which is the focus. Jamie Blackett disabuses the reader of any notion that the lot of a Scottish country estate owner in this day and age is a carefree progress from sunlit field to idyllic shoreline. He lives in what sounds like a perfect location on the north shore of the Solway Firth. But all is not well in the state of Blackettland. His life is made hell by urban protesters who derail his best-laid plans, DEFRA and other busybodies . The opening pages set the scene. They might be skated over by readers with weak stomachs, dealing as they do with his attempts to free a blockage in a septic tank. This not a terribly funny book, but it is one that sheds merciless light on the angry people who are doing their best to keep our countryside full of wildlife while scraping a living (£12,500 a year anyone?) against the odds.