The Sussex landscape is here celebrated by writers and poets, both famous and lesser-known, as we trace their search for rural peace and beauty in the tumultuous years 1850 to 1939. For the first time we trace the corpus of Sussex writing which was connected to those wider events but was equally a hymn of praise to rural Sussex, seen as nourishing, sympathetic and, for some, a retreat from the stresses of burgeoning city life or the horrors of mechanised warfare. We meet Wilfred Blunt and learn of his love for his Wealden countryside; we encounter the complex Hilaire Belloc; the acute observations of Richard Jefferies and Rudyard Kipling; and the modernity of Virginia Woolf. Lesser-known writers are included too, such as Charles Dalmon or Dr Habberton Lulham, who loved spending time with the downland shepherds or with travelling folk among the byways of the county.

The late Peter Brandon was a prolific author of books about Sussex, and a knowledgeable and inspirational speaker. He inspired many landscape geographers and historians, residents and visitors with his natural enthusiasm for his beloved Sussex countryside. He was vice-president of the Sussex branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and of the Sussex Archaeological Society, and president of the South Downs Society. Brian Short has a BA and PhD from the University of London, FRGS. He is a Professor Emeritus (Geography) at the University of Sussex. He has been president of the Sussex Record Society since 2011 and is currently an editorial board member for the journal 'Landscape History' and Collins' internationally renowned 'New Naturalist' series.