Wish You Were Here (Swift novel)

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Wish You Were Here is a 2011 novel by Graham Swift about the changing face of rural England. The story is told by Jack Luxton, the last in a long line of West Country farmers who now runs a caravan park on the Isle of Wight with his childhood sweetheart, the daughter of a neighboring farmer.

As Jack travels to collect his brother’s body, sent home from the Iraq war to be buried in North Devon, he recounts the history of the Luxton family and their traditional roles in farming and military service. The book also shows the decline of dairy farming in England, caused by mad cow disease in 1996 and foot-and-mouth disease in 2001. It explores how wealthy city people buying second homes in the countryside disrupts village life and makes it hard for locals to stay.