Byron Rogers moved to Blakesley, in Northamptonshire, long before fleeing the city for the country became everyone’s dream. Over the years, his “Village Voice” column in London’s Daily Telegraph observed his village’s gradual evolution from a place where people lived from cradle to grave, into a dormitory haven for car-borne commuters. Now, in The Green Lane to Nowhere, his touching, frequently hilarious chronicle can be enjoyed by a wider audience. Here is the Methodist chapel that became an auto showroom, the summer gala where the author bought his neighbor’s shirts, his elevation to heady civic responsibility as Warden of the Paths, and the pathos of the village’s oldest resident finally having to quit her ancestral home. It is an enchanting book that will appeal to anyone who has ever dreamed of leaving the metropolis behind. Byron Rogers is the author of An Audience with an Elephant.