Cloud Farm: High on Banks Peninsula

'Whenever I had a spare moment from work my thoughts would return to the 'Farms for Sale' column.' THIS is the captivating account of a seduction. A woman is unaccountably smitten by the desire to have her own 'farm', to the point where she resigns from her job as professor of medicine at Canterbury University and takes on her own Banks Peninsula property. 'Cloud Farm' is a gorse-ridden, cloud-shrouded, 165 acre hillside property, 2,000 feet above sea level. The house hasn't been lived in for 60 years and the rats have been having a ball. Jane Chetwynd's steady progress in the face of obstacles is impressive. She has to leave her city life (and steady income) and take on the role of land owner. First job; to make the house habitable - a job which requires lateral thinking for a woman with little practical bent. The author's awakening interest in the environment sees her helping to regenerate native trees and grappling with the huge gorse problem which threatens not only her property but finances as well. Told in vibrant prose spiked with humour and affectionate portraits of fellow players Cloud Farm will appeal to anyone who has ever nursed a dream where the odds seem impossible.