Presented by Penguin.

With this, his 1st memoir, John recounts his childhood, the highpoints and lowpoints of one of the longest amusing careers in history, and the people, family and animals in his own life that have shaped it.

Delivered in Leeds, West Yorkshire, John showed an early curiosity papers when, aged eleven, he published the ‘Grimthorpe Street Gazette’: a one-page paper detailing the most recent goings-on in his street. It had been a short-lived business, not really least as he only acquired one about Headlines and Hedgerows: A Memoir copy from it (which he charged neighbours a cent to borrow and browse). It had been whilst working on the Yorkshire Post that he heard about a new starting in the BBC – a move that was to change his life forever…

Through the entire 1970s and 80s, John was, to children and parents as well, an agreeable guide towards the big wide world also to adulthood, breaking such news as the Challenger shuttle disaster in 1986 on Newsround. Since that time, having presented Countryfile from over the breadth of Britain, John provides introduced us to the people, landscapes and animals which will make it therefore special. He has done for our countryside what Attenborough has done across the world, and now we get to hear the story of this nationwide treasure.