Moortown Diary, sometimes just known as Moortown, is a poetry diary

Diary

A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...

 which details the everyday life of a working farm

Farm

A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

, first published in 1979. The author, poet Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes

Edward James Hughes OM , more commonly known as Ted Hughes, was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until...

, married Carol Orchard, a farmer's daughter, in 1970. Ted and his father-in-law, Jack Orchard, ran Moortown farm near Winkleigh

Winkleigh

Winkleigh is a small village in Devon, England. It is best known outside Devon as the birthplace of Inch's Cider. Inch's Cider was bought by Bulmer's, who then closed the plant down...

 in Mid Devon

Mid Devon

Mid Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Tiverton.The district was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the borough of Tiverton and Crediton urban district together with Tiverton Rural District, and Crediton Rural...

. The book contains a moving tribute to Jack Orchard, who died in 1976.

Ted later gave up farming, but kept the farmhouse. He used the building for accommodating writers and poets, notably Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

. He sold the farmhouse about a year before his death.