William Cobbett

author

William Cobbett

1763–1835

A fierce journalist and reformer, he wrote with energy and plainspoken force about politics, poverty, and life in the English countryside. Best known for Rural Rides, he brought ordinary readers close to the land and the people who worked it.

3 Audiobooks

Cottage Economy, to Which is Added The Poor Man's Friend

Cottage Economy, to Which is Added The Poor Man's Friend

by William Cobbett

Advice to Young Men And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life. In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Father, a Citizen, or a Subject.

Advice to Young Men And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life. In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Father, a Citizen, or a Subject.

by William Cobbett

Rural Rides

Rural Rides

by William Cobbett

About the author

Born in Farnham, Surrey, in 1763, William Cobbett grew up in a farming family and carried that deep knowledge of rural life into everything he wrote. He served in the army, spent several years in North America, and built a reputation as a bold, combative writer before returning to England.

Cobbett became one of the great political journalists of his age. Through pamphlets, newspapers, and books, he argued for parliamentary reform and spoke up for laborers and small farmers at a time of rapid economic and social change. His writing was direct, lively, and often sharp, which made him both widely read and hotly debated.

Today he is especially remembered for Rural Rides, drawn from journeys through the English countryside in the 1820s. In those pages, he mixed travel writing, political criticism, and close observation of everyday life, creating a picture of rural England that still feels vivid and human.