Book review: Rooted, by Sarah Langford

Sarah Langford didn’t expect to write a book about farming. She is a lawyer and lives in the city. But she was the grandchild of farmers, and events led her and her family back into farming almost by accident. This book tells her story, along with the stories of other farmers at a time of profound change in the sector.

As the book describes, farming’s reputation has changed in recent decades. At the end of the Second World War Britain was intensely vulnerable when it came to food. Ration...