This month farmer, landowner and author Jamie Blackett will be speaking to us about his most recent book, Red Rag to a Bull: Rural Life in an Urban Age. Jamie will discuss the issues facing the British countryside, drawing on his experiences as a farmer and conservationist in Dumfriesshire. The book tells how he arrived home from the Army to take over Arbigland, a large coastal estate on the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway to find a rapidly changing countryside. Set over 20 years through the Scottish independence referendum, hunting ban, and Brexit, the book covers challenges threatening a way of life and an emerging rural philosophy in which farmers have greater freedom to manage the countryside.