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Ian Alcock’s A Hill Farmer’s Year (Swan Hill, Shrewsbury, £19.95, ISBN 1 85310 489 2) takes us from his new year – March, as the winter winds to an end – through a year’s work on the hills. November is the breeding season for ewes, the time for rowan, whitebeam and elderberries, and a chance for foxes and rooks to feast on wild cherries or geans. Illustrated with watercolours, this will make a good fireside read when it gets too cold to go out and see the real thing.