The world of publishing, like the countryside, has changed irreversibly since the time J W Robertson Scott first decided to thrust our little green book into the hands of a country-loving public back in 1927. I wonder what the magazine’s founding editor would have thought about sitting down at a computer and writing a few hundred words each week to send around the world for potentially millions to read within seconds of adding the final full stop. Unless there’s an extant rural custom or implement I’ve never come across, the term blog would have had him scratching his wise old head even fifty years later. And, having discovered what it was, whether he would have thought blogging worth his consideration or precious time is open to conjecture. Of course, I too would rather be out and about enjoying and learning about the countryside than being a slave to my laptop but such is the modern communications business that the editor’s role has taken on many new facets since Scott’s days. In this new section of our ever-improving website I’ll be bringing you country news and personal views on rural affairs together with my observations from wandering around our wonderful countryside. I’ll expect to hear from you, too, as we set out on Countryman’s latest journey.

This is a new feature for 2009. The Countryman news blog will bring you up-to-date countryside information and allow you to interact with the editor and other readers.