LIKE the man on the Clapham Omnibus known for putting the world to rights, people in the Valley of the Teme, at Clun and Beguildy, and other hidden corners straddling the borders of England and Wales, do much the same in the pubs. JEN GREEN dips into The Tippling Philosopher a collection of the stories in a new book by Jeremy James

THE changing scene of rural pubs across England is evidenced through the arrival of gaming machines, piped music and a change in clientele, but in Clun and the Beguildy some traditional, simple pubs, where the world is put to rights, remain.

Farmers, builders, cow chasers, sheep shearers, grafters and gentlemen of the cider barrels and meadows, smack their fists into the bartop puddles and dispute the world around them.

Pest control, political correctness, Europe, the taxman, ministry bureaucrats, the closure of the village school, and life and death in the valley are considered fair game.

Jeremy James, of Felindre, near Knighton, Powys, always one for a great pub story, has polished the bars of a good few taprooms. For his latest book, The Tippling Philosopher, a delightful account of a life spent bending the elbow; he has sunk a good few pints and smoked half a mile of cigarettes.

The 20 beautifully narrated pub tales are lively, funny and moving, raising important issues about living in rural communities today.

Born and brought up in farming, first in Kenya then the UK, he attended the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, worked with livestock in the Middle East for seven years and tried every kind of agricultural job there was, but couldn't settle.

"Something was missing," he said. "On a whim, in 1987, I went to Turkey, bought a horse and rode across Europe to the mid-Wales borders.

"The result was my first book, Saddletramp. Over the next few years more travels on horseback followed, and, along the way, I wrote more books and articles for magazine and newspapers."

He worked on farms, visited the pubs, and went all over the world with horses before coming back to the Marches landscape to live in a farming community he admired and in whose company he felt at home.

But there is more to the man than that? He cares for people and animals, including the welfare of horses who are driven from Poland to Italy with little food and in the middle of harsh winters, just for the food market.

"I was shocked by what I saw and heard and was determined to do something about it, so I worked with the EU to help make improvements," he explained.

"It was very distressing when I discovered that they were destined to become salami."

The Tippling Philosopher has plenty to say about morality and political correctness but, Jeremy says, its stories are about the spirit of community, still seen in old chaps sitting around the pub having a marvellous view of the world.

"When they are no longer around, if their views are not handed down, all will be lost," he adds.

"The Beguildy and Clun Valley people have embroidered their landscape into a lovely one reflecting their character; inter-dependent, strong willed and confident but, get on the wrong side and you're on a hill in winter without a coat and it blows shot gaskets up there."

The Tippling Philosopher (ISBN 1-873674-0) is published by Merlin Unwin at £12 and is being launched today (Thursday) in the White Horse and the Sun Inn at Clun.

It will be available in bookshops or direct from Merlin Unwin, Palmers House, Corve Street, Ludlow. SY8 877, telephone 01584 877456.