Five years ago, after the senseless murder of his closest friend in Nairobi, Aidan Hartley packed up his bags and headed for the hills with his wife and young daughter, eager to get as far as he could from the sinister chaos of the city. They bought a vast tract of dry land in Laikipia, in Norther Kenya, with no fences, no phones, and no company at first other than the errant witchdoctor who cursed the dust of his footsteps.It wasn't long before Aidan discovered that his patch of wilderness was full of life after all: not just the farmhands who spent their wages on drink, weddings and funerals (there were lots of fights), but a whole procession of curious people who wanted something, or felt they needed to poke their noses in. As Aidan and his wife Claire struggled to build a farm from scratch, they had run-ins with leopards and elephants, and with their new neighbors. Their daughter Eve was blinded for a day by white caterpillars and their sheep dealer was shot dead. Claire had a miscarriage and then nearly lost their son before he was born on a long, dusty race to the hospital on Mt. Kenya.Aidan grew up on a farm in Tanzania and thought he had farming in his blood, but nothing prepared him for how hard it would be.

He started with a few tents and built everything out of local materials: mud and cow dung, papyrus and grass thatch. All three of them learned more than they ever imagined they would from the Africans who helped them. The Story of An African Farm is structured in seasons, as life is lived on the farm. It is an extraordinary book, sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes hilariously funny and is guaranteed to make you think twice before giving up everything for the rural life.