When an American woman and her British husband decide to buy a two-hundred-year-old cottage in the heart of theCotswolds, they're hoping for an escape from theirLondonlives. Instead, their decision about whether or not to have a child plays out against abackdrop of villagefetes, rural rambles, and a cast of eccentrics clad in corduroy and tweed. Americashire: A Field Guide to a Marriagebegins with the simultaneouspurchase of aCotswold cottage and Richardson's ill-advised decision to tell her grandchild-hungry parents that she is going to try to have a baby. As she transitions from urban to rural life, she is forced to confront both her ambivalence about the idea of motherhood and the reality of living with a spouse who sees the world as a glass half-full. Part memoir, part travelogue - and including field guides to narrative-related Cotswoldwalks -Americashireis a candid, humorous tale of marriage, illness, and big life decisions.