Sally Coulthard is one of the most respected authors on farming, nature, and rural history.

Introduced as a “countryside doyenne,” Coulthard appeared at Farnham Literary Festival on Sunday to promote her latest book, A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects.

Speaking to an intimate audience at Farnham Town Council offices, Coulthard reflected on her childhood in Yorkshire, her studies in anthropology and archaeology at Oxford University, and her journey to becoming a factual television producer.

She later married a gardener and returned to Yorkshire, where she began writing extensively about the countryside. So far, she has covered topics ranging from sheep, hedgehogs, and bees to apples, owls, and chickens, along with a vast array of rural themes.

Her latest book showcases artefacts, tools, toys, curios, and memorabilia that define Britain’s rural past, illustrating how our relationship with nature can be understood through these remnants of history.

“Our collective history is really about rural lives, so I wanted to explore that story—how people lived and how they did things we take for granted,” she said.

“How was our healthcare? What did people eat? How did we farm animals? What was crime and punishment like? How did we light our rooms? You don’t think about these things in the 21st century because everything is so at hand.

“I wanted to write about the courage and resourcefulness of our ancestors—and sometimes the shocking bits of countryside history.

“The countryside isn’t just maypoles and bunting. It’s complicated, and there are complicated issues,” she added.

Among the objects featured in her book is an antler headdress discovered at Star Carr, an archaeological site in North Yorkshire. This enigmatic artefact may have been used by shamans to exert power over deer.

The final object included is a “robo-bee” drone, developed at Harvard University as an experiment to pollinate plants if all bees were to disappear. “This is not only brilliantly technical, it’s also profoundly depressing,” Coulthard remarked.

She concluded her talk with a call to protect nature.

“Every creature I’ve written about, with the exception of deer, seems to be struggling,” she said. “They’re all interlinked because the choices we make as consumers have a direct effect on what our landscape looks like.”