Walter Murray was a young man tired of living in the city. Early in the 1920s, he persuaded a Sussex farmer to rent him a derelict cottage, which stood alone on a hill, with no running water or electricity. Most of the windows were broken, it was dirty, dark and ran with rats. He bought a brush and pail in the village, forced the rats to retreat, brought in rudimentary furniture. The local postman found him a dog, and with his new companion he began to explore his surroundings. In that year at Copsford he made a living from collecting, drying and selling the herbs he found locally: agrimony, meadow-sweet and yarrow. He became alert to the wildlife and plants around him. His life was hard – he copsford by walter j. c. murray a little toller nature classics library little toller nature classics library Little Toller Books republishes classics of nature writing and rural life. Designed in the spirit of the early editions, each book includes a new introduction and cover illustration. Published 4th March 2019 UK (2nd Jan 2020 US & Canada) 216 x 156mm, paperback internal illustrations by Dorothy Hartley ISBN: 978-1-908213-70-9 Sewn Paperback with Flaps, 168 pages on 90gsm Munken paper Price: UK£12 US $19 Distributed by Central Books T: 020 8525 8800 F: 020 8525 8879 E: [email protected] W: centralbooks.com Also available from Gardners Books, Bertrams & Little Toller Contact Jon on 01300 321536 or [email protected] walter j. c. murray (1900-1985) was a writer whose work has been compared Richard Jefferies. He served in the first world war, and thereafter lived in Sussex for the remainder of his life, becoming a school teacher and eventually headmaster of a small private school. COPSFORD WALTER J. C. MURRAY Introduced by raynor winn supplemented his income with occasional journalism, but it was here he met his future wife, who he calls The Music Mistress, and with whom he would later found a school. Copsford is an extraordinary book. Bearing comparison to Thoreau’s Walden, Murray’s intense feeling for his place is evident on every page. It is, though, no simple story of a rural idyll – life at Copsford was hard, and Murray does not shy away from the occasional terrors of a house that had its hauntings.