All Cheeses Great and Small

This is the story of Alex James’s transition from a leading light of the Britpop movement in the 1990s, to gentleman farmer, artisan cheese-maker and father of five.

‘I was hanging around the pigsty in the way I’d previously hung around at The Groucho Club. I felt wonderfully connected, grounded in the real world, standing in pig muck’

Following fifteen years in Blur, Alex James did two wild, unexpected things. He fell in love and he bought a farm.

Moving into a rambling, chaotic farmstead in the beautiful Cotswold countryside, he decides the best way to learn about farming is the same way he learned most about music: by jumping in and doing it. As his family settles in, he discovers the unexpected joys that country life abounds in: finding the first egg from your very own chicken, coming across a bramble bush laden with blackberries, roasting home-grown pears on an open fire, before stumbling on a new venture – making cheese.

Wonderfully warm, witty and perfectly observed, this is the story of what to do after you’ve been the bass player in one of the best bands in the world, and a life-affirming tale of just how much fun growing up and settling down can be.

‘A joy to read. Prose flows and weaves and curls itself into pleasing rhythms…He can write like a god.’ SPECTATOR

“Praise for Bit of a Blur: 'Alex James is a witty, engaging guide to the mad goings-on behind the scenes of Britpop. Blur's bassist famously estimates that he blew around £1m on champagne and cocaine during the nineties. Here's how.' Independent 'Bright, passionate … James writes with wit and flair.' Time Out 'The definitive guide to Britpop … this effervescent memoir emerges as the most fascinating, as well as hilarious, document to date of those times.' Observer 'Guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye in a good way.' Elle 'A mischievous romp through nineties excess from the eye of that peaceful decade's most inventive pop band.' Evening Standard 'For anyone seeking confirmation that being a pop star is the best job going, dive in.' Q 'A dreamy, witty spin on his life as a supremely debauched rock star … James's inquisitive nature makes him eminently and continuously likeable.' Guardian 'James is more than happy to reveal the nitty-gritty in a surprisingly honest and almost humble way … you get a really good sense of what it was like being him, of finally being in the right place at the right time and hell-bent on having a blast.' Daily Mirror”

‘James’s prose is clean and poetic. His childlike wonder at the simple things – from herons to heaps of rubble – can be infectious’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘A joy to read. Prose flows and weaves and curls itself into pleasing rhythms…(Alex James) can write like a god’ SPECTATOR

‘The upbeat tone matches that of his Blur-era autobiography A BIT OF A BLUR, treating his downsize from rock heart-throb to cockerel-throttling country gent as if cheese contests were Britpop orgies. Riding bikes, the smell of berry bushes, piles of cow dung: all brilliant’ NME

Alex James was the bass guitarist in the nineties band Blur, a life he chronicled with great success in his first book, Bit of a Blur. He now lives on a farm in the Cotswolds with his wife and five children, makes cheese, writes for the Spectator and a weekly food column for The Sun. He and also contributes to a number of other British newspapers including The Independent, The Observer, The Times, The Sunday Times and has his own show on Classic FM. In September 2011 he hosted the ‘Harvest’ festival at his farm, combining the best in British music and food.

This is the story of Alex James's transition from a leading light of the Britpop movement in the 1990s, to gentleman farmer, artisan cheese-maker and father of five. All Cheeses Great and Small is the follow-up memoir to Alex James's first book, Bit of a Blur, the story of his excessive pop star lifestyle during the nineties. But now Alex has grown up, fallen in love and got married. He has also fallen passionately for his new home, an enormous rambling farmhouse in the Cotswolds, set in two hundred acres of beautiful British countryside. The farm represents not just a new house for Alex, but also a new career. As he breathes new life into the old farm he chances across an unexpected calling: making cheese. His cheeses, Blue Monday, Farleigh Wallop and Little Wallop have received widespread media interest and are now sold through many outlets. The story culminates with an account of the triumphant reformation of Blur for Glastonbury 2009. It will also include illustrations by Graham Coxon.

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