Very interesting descriptions of the difficulties and boys of farming in the lake district but I was distracted by repetitions and jumps between timelines

Amazing writing, it truly changed my perspective on shepherding and farming and all that goes with it! If I ever visit the Lake District, I will always think of this book and how important the landscape is to the people that live there.

"It is a curious thing to slowly discover that your landscape is beloved of other people. It is even more curious, and a little unsettling, when you discover by stages that you as a native are not really part of the story and meaning they attach to that place."

"I am the thread that goes to the future. He lives in me. His voice. His values. His stories. His farm. These things are carried forwards. I hear his voice in my head when I do work on the farm. It sometimes stops me doing something foolish, and I pause and do it how he would have done it. Everyone knows he was a major ingredient in the making of me, and that I am the going on of him. It was ever thus."

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It's not often I read a book that I instantly want to go around shoving into other people's hands: "Here! You HAVE to read this book!"

I intended to buy this book as soon as I discovered Herdy Shepherd (James Rebanks) had written a book. I wanted to support him & what he does. I did not expect the book to be so masterfully written or so utterly engrossing. I will never be able to hear about the Lake District again without thinking of the shepherds in this book.

Shepherds are not thick. We are just tuned to a different channel.
This is a beautifully written, honest and heartfelt book about a way of life that persists against all hardship. One that goes back centuries and, I hope, forward into the far future.
James Rebanks has set a very, very high benchmark for all the other books I intend to read in 2018.
I unreservedly and wholeheartedly recommend it.

Four and a half stars, because I sometimes found the narrative a little disjointed, but the book itself was just marvelous in all sorts of ways.

3.5 stars

A worthwhile account of working farm life and landscape and the intergenerational pride, passion, and tension engendered by the work and culture, as well as an important reminder of what a tourist approach to a landscape is missing and potentially endangering. I thought the opening salvo of the book, a somewhat affronted challenge to the ignorant romanticism of outsiders who are also dismissive of the farming life Rebanks is so passionate about, was intriguing, but started to feel that antagonism grate a bit after a while. That said, over the course of the book his view seemed to balance out, recognizing that the attention from the outside world isn’t all self-serving and can be managed in a productive way. I don’t know if this shift in tone was due to the chronological development of the memoir, but it might have been better if blended in or at least hinted at closer to the beginning. In general the book felt uneven, often repetitive with sort of wandery logic. The seasonal structure helped a bit but could have been tighter. In any case I did learn some new things about sheep farming and the Lake District and have gained new respect for the art form that is sheep breeding, and its value for a landscape so entwined with human husbandry and culture, even if economically challenging. It was especially interesting to compare this mindset to the white livestock farmers of the American West, who have only been on the land for less than two centuries (as opposed to thousands of years) but often have the same sense of ownership and pique at being interfered with, and similar tensions between the interests of ranchers and conservationists. The difference being, again, that fell sheep are indeed part of the Lake District ecosystem, in moderation, while western American landscapes are not adapted to “locusts with hooves” as imported by European settlers. Would be interesting to read more about that comparison to see if it holds up.

What this? No I think I have some sheep dust in my eye...