In the detail of village architecture, the superstitions of tree-planting and rituals of house-building, in the esoteric practices of horse cults or the pagan habit of 'telling the bees', The Pattern Under the Plough unearths the rich seam of customs and beliefs that this old culture has brought to our communities.

A deeply personal and tender story of war, peace and those who are left behind. One hundred years after the war to end all wars, Jacko's descendants discover his notebook and the untold stories tucked in its pages. "This war is a nightmare that one day I shall wake from and then forget. And if I don't wake, then you shall never know. I don't want you ever to know." No one seems to know where the scruffy tin hat came from - just that it is very old, from some war or other long ago. To young Michael and his family it has its uses today: as a child's toy, a feeding bowl for the hens, a...