Life on the Levels: Voices from the Working World

The Moors and Levels of Somerset are still home to practices and professions that are particular to the unique landscape of the place. Lying in a bowl of hills bounded by the sea, and crossed by a network of rivers, ditches, dikes, canals and rhymes, these lowlands are defined by water and by flood. The farmers, fishermen, peat diggers, withy-growers, basket makers and cider makers in this area have all inherited traditions that were evolved over many years by Celts and Saxons, abbots and noblemen, commoners and landowners. Illustrated with evocative photographs of the landscape and its people, “Life on the Levels” presents the voices of local people talking about their memories of a now-threatened way of life. The book is both a study and a celebration of the men and women whose lives have always been lived to the rhythm of life on the levels.