Alexandra Henton

For a country girl, what better job than PA at The Field? Well, Editor, of course, to champion rural causes and keep 168 years of heritage relevant

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THE country has always been part of my life. We live in the Leicestershire countryside and my formative years were spent poking around in streams with my sister, jumping on our ponies with only a headcollar for guidance to race each other up the field, riding with my mother and acting as a human gundog to my father on his shoot days. I would stand by him on the peg, in my waxed jacket and cap, toes slowly turning to ice, scampering off to retrieve birds, proud as any well-honed gundog. There would always be a cherry bakewell in Pa’s pocket, for elevenses, and the warm glow of retelling the day when I arrived home with a brace of birds for supper. Storytelling has always been my thing.