The Shepherds Life, James Rebanks
The Shepherds Life, James Rebanks
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Shepherd's Life
Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape

Author: James Rebanks

Narrator: Bryan Dick

Unabridged: 7 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/12/2015


Synopsis

The New York Times bestseller and International Phenomenon
One of the Top Ten Books of 2015, Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times.

"It's bloody marvelous." - Helen Macdonald, New York Times bestselling author of H IS FOR HAWK

"Captivating... A book about continuity and roots and a sense of belonging in an age that's increasingly about mobility and self-invention. Hugely compelling." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Some people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks' isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, his family have lived and worked in the Lake District of Northern England for generations, further back than recorded history. It's a part of the world known mainly for its romantic descriptions by Wordsworth and the much loved illustrated children's books of Beatrix Potter. But James' world is quite different. His way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand. It hasn't changed for hundreds of years: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where the flocks are replenished; the grueling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that comes with spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the hills and valleys.

The Shepherd's Life the story of a deep-rooted attachment to place, modern dispatches from an ancient landscape that describe a way of life that is little noticed and yet has profoundly shaped the landscape over time. In evocative and lucid prose, James Rebanks takes us through a shepherd's year, offering a unique account of rural life and a fundamental connection with the land that most of us have lost. It is a story of working lives, the people around him, his childhood, his parents and grandparents, a people who exist and endure even as the culture - of the Lake District, and of farming - changes around them.

Many memoirs are of people working desperately hard to leave a place. This is the story of someone trying desperately hard to stay.

About James Rebanks

James Rebanks runs a family-owned farm in the Lake District in northern England. A graduate of Oxford University, James works as an expert advisor to UNESCO on sustainable tourism. The Shepherd's Life is his first book.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Andrew on February 17, 2015

There's a field of history condescendingly labelled "peasant studies." Now, normally these peasants are long, long dead so we live with the awkwardness. But James Rebanks is no dead peasant. And he's rightly proud of his place and work in this world. So let's us urban readers figure out how to enjoy......more


Awards

  • The Telegraph (UK) Best Books of the Year
  • The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year
  • Chapters Indigo Best of the Year
  • The Guardian (UK) Best Books of the Year