Jamie Blackett – författare

The Enigma of Kidson is a moving, thought-provoking, inspiring and hilarious biography of an inspirational and controversialteacher. Move over Mr Chips. Kidson had everything that central casting requires of a legendary schoolmaster: a passion for his subject, a brilliant didactic style, a silly walk, a smelly spaniel, breath-taking rudeness, eccentric mannerisms and catchphrases, a maverick attitude towards authority, and above all, a deep empathy, loyalty and dedication towards his boys. He had an extraordinary influence on his pupils - David Cameron, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Johnnie Boden, Nicky Henderson, Sir Matthew Pinsent, `Lupin' and Dominic West among them.This unique portrait features recollections and vignettes of incidents in the classroom and the tutorial. As Kidson was an inspirational History Beak (master), history is a strong theme throughout the book and through Kidson's life story we get a vivid social history of the latter part of the twentieth century where the themes of education, culture, teaching, adolescence, discipline, mentorship, pronunciation, parenting and old age are all examined.

Land of Milk and Honey is the long-awaited sequel to Red Rag to a Bull. Author Jamie Blackett finds himself in danger of losing the family estate as his beef business encounters difficulties and the spectre of Brexit bears down on the farming community. Meanwhile he feels under threat from extreme environmentalists attacking the very concept of livestock farming and by resurgent Scottish nationalism threatening the break-up of the United Kingdom.The book is the honest and forthright account of how he copes with the crisis by following the example of New Zealand farmers in similar circumstances and successfully embracing the new creed of regenerative agriculture and switching the farm into pasture-based dairying. Through Jamie’s struggles the reader comes to understand the crossroads facing the British countryside as it attempts to adapt to free trade after eighty years of agricultural subsidies. We are also guided through the complexities and contradictions in the quest to reach Net Zero carbon and reverse biodiversity loss as he explores the current craze for re-wilding the land and puts some of its ideas into practice for the benefit of wildlife on the estate.Along the way Jamie becomes an outspoken newspaper columnist and establishes an unlikely political alliance with the maverick socialist George Galloway in an attempt to break the stalemate in Scottish politics and defeat Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP in the Holyrood election.The book contains humour, vivid passages of nature writing and numerous polemical digressions on a wide range of countryside issues.

Author Jamie Blackett arrives home from the Army to take over a small family estate on the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway, and finds a rapidly changing countryside.In a humorous and occasionally moving tale, he describes the return of the native to grapple with the intricacies of farming, conservation and estate management, telling the story of founding a pack of foxhounds and a herd of pedigree beef cattle. Part childhood memoir, part biopic of rural life, readers are transported to a remote and beautiful part of Scotland and acquainted with its wildlife, its people and its customs. One minute he is unblocking his septic tank, and the next he is watching Glenn Close film a sex scene in his bedroom.The book follows in the tradition of countryside classics by John Lister-Kaye, James Herriot and James Rebanks. Set over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, through the Scottish independence referendum, Brexit and the hunting ban, the result is an enlightened review of the challenges threatening a vulnerable way of life and an emerging philosophy about the directions Scotland, farming and the countryside might take in the brave new world of Brexit.