A JOURNALIST with Oswestry roots is launching a book in the town aimed at explaining the divide between rural and urban communities.

Anna Jones is a freelance journalist specialising in rural and farming issues, and has worked on BBC show Countryfile and other shows at the corporation.

She will be launching 'Divide' at Booka Bookshop, in Church Street, from 7pm on Wednesday, a book she says will be addressing the two urban and rural worlds she has lived in.

"My family are from near Oswestry as my parents still live in Llansilin, but I now live in Shrewsbury," said Anna.

"The book is about the divide between urban and rural communities as I've grown up in a more traditional area.

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"I then moved away to a city area and that happens a lot – young people move away from the rural area to a big city or town and urban environment, and never return.

"There are so many issues that divide the urban and rural communities – veganism and animal welfare among many.

"But Brexit was the main one for me – all of my friends when I was living in Bristol at the time are Remainers while back home, most of my extended family voted to leave, except for my parents. They voted to remain and they talk about it in the book.

"This is a good example of the divide between the two communities."

Anna feels straddling the two communities has left her feeling like she belongs to neither, but she insists that this has given her the insight she need to explain the divide.

She added: "I think this gives me a special view as I don't belong to either tribe.

"Whenever I'm in the rural community I'm defending the urban and vice versa, and this offers me the chance to play Devil's Advocate.

"The book is about bringing together that half-and-half view.

"But that's good as we often hang around with many people who share our world view and we can find ourselves in a bit of an echo chamber.

"It's the best way in trying to build an understanding of each other.

"For example, climate change is an important issue but Extinction Rebellion is a purely urban group that hasn't done much to bring along rural communities.

"It's about trying to understand."