Americashire: a Field Guide to a Marriage - Paperback

by Jennifer Richardson (Author)

Jennifer Richardson and her husband bought a cottage in the Cotswolds in the hopes of finding respite from their stressful London existence-but instead, their new rural life forced Richardson to confront her husband's depression, her own ambivalence toward motherhood, and a frightening medical diagnosis that threatened her whole world.

Front Jacket

Best Travel Writing 2013 IndieReader Discovery Awards

When an American woman and her British husband decide to buy a two-hundred-year-old cottage in the heart of the Cotswolds, they're hoping for an escape from their London lives. Instead, their decision about whether or not to have a child plays out against a backdrop of village fetes, rural rambles, and a cast of eccentrics clad in corduroy and tweed.

Americashire: A Field Guide to a Marriage begins with the simultaneous purchase of a Cotswold cottage and Richardson's ill-advised decision to tell her grandchild-hungry parents that she is going to try to have a baby. As she transitions from urban to rural life, she is forced to confront both her ambivalence about the idea of motherhood and the reality of living with a spouse who suffers from depression. Then, just when she is finally settling into English country life, she is struck by an attack of non-alcohol-related slurring that turns out to be a symptom of multiple sclerosis. Her indecision about moving forward with motherhood is brought to a head when her neurologist tells her that pregnancy may actually decrease her risk of developing full-blown MS.

Part memoir, part travelogue--and including field guides to narrative-related Cotswold walks--Americashire is a candid, compelling tale of marriage, illness, and difficult life decisions.

Author Biography

Jennifer Richardson is an American Anglophile who spent three years living in a Cotswold village populated by fumbling aristocrats, gentlemen farmers, and a village idiot.;She is married to an Englishman who provides her with ample writing material.;She currently resides in Santa Monica, California with her husband and her royal wedding tea towel collection.;You can find her on Twitter @baronessbarren.