Terrific ... what makes Mabey's appreciation of Lark Rise's shape-shifting so compelling is that he never makes the mistake of thinking that the original was summoned up by some act of the collective unconscious. Instead, he reminds us of Thompson's awkward and patient achievement, as the sole creator of a bona fide work of art Guardian It seems unlikely we shall ever get closer to the woman who wrote Lark Rise to Candleford Sunday Times Dreams Of The Good Life is a gem of a book, small, perfectly formed, informative and, as his title suggests, dreamy Sunday Herald

Richard Mabey is the acclaimed author of some thirty books, including Gilbert White, which won the Whitbread Biography Award in 1986, Flora Britannica (1995), winner of a National Book Award, and Nature Cure (2005), which was short-listed for three major literary awards, the Whitbread, Ondaatje, and J.R. Ackerley prizes. He writes for the Guardian, New Statesman and Granta, and contributes frequently to BBC radio. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.