More than four years after the last case of foot and mouth was confirmed in Devon, a remarkable book has been published to document what really happened in the dark months of 2001. Silence at Ramscliffe: Foot and Mouth in Devon combines Chris Chapman's powerful photographs and James Crowden's perceptive poetry to create a unique record of the events of that spring and summer.

Documentary photographer Chris Chapman had unprecedented access to study a contiguous cull on a farm in north Devon.

Later, he was joined by poet James Crowden to tour the farm and surrounding region to share the pain he had witnessed. The book combines the views of the photographer and the poet, neither flinching from the reality of what they saw.

The authors hope that it will also act as a form of catharsis for those directly affected by the government's appalling and callous handling of the tragedy.

"Much of the media revelled in the gorier aspects of the story, and then it was quickly forgotten," Chris said. "I wanted to make sense of the experience of the cull for the people whom it affected most, farmers, their families, friends and neighbours. I hope in some small way this book will help to heal the wounds of those who experienced its horror."

James added that for Devon farmers the epidemic must have seemed as if the "killing fields of Cambodia" had taken over their landscape. "Nothing prepared me for foot and mouth. Image and reality became inextricably linked. There is no tradition of rural poetry to encompass what we saw," he said. "The only conscious links were to the World War I and the poetry of Wilfred Owen."

Zac Goldsmith, editor of the Ecologist said: "This book provides not only a permanent reminder of the pain inflicted on Britain's rural communities, but a valuable lesson too - that the nightmare need never be repeated."

Food writer, TV chef and countryman Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall described the book as a suitably provocative collection of words and pictures.