Tickner Edwardes (properly Edward Tickner Edwardes) served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during WWI and later became the vicar of the West Sussex village of Burpham. Edwardes has the same naturalist's fascination with the world around him as Gilbert White had, a century before. He wrote on beekeeping, wrote what is probably the earliest book describing hitchhiking, and wrote a number of books (fiction and non-fiction) about life on the Sussex Downs. "Neighbourhood" is a semi-fictionalised essay on life in his village, and on its people, month by month through the year.