I came at this book with a lot of preconceived notions. It's about sheep -- I'm a knitter, I like sheep. It's about farming -- my grandfather was a farmer, I know a bit about that.

Turns out, I don't even know. I got schooled -- but in the best way possible. I think the people I admire most in the world are those that can do a thing well AND write passionately and movingly about that thing -- whether it's a place, or a skill, or a history. Rebanks covers all those bases and more. He's truly an ambassador for his way of sheep farming and the agrarian history of England's Lake District.

He doesn't pull any punches. Cumbrian sheep farming is hard, constant work. He's not raising sheep for wool (as I'd assumed) but rather for eating. The books is presented in the seasons of the sheep farming cycle, covering everything from mating to lambing, sheep shows and herding. In this context, readers get to learn a bit about his unconventional formal education track, and the family whose traditions he's trying to preserve.

A fantastic book about the passions of "place." I'd put it up there with Adam Nicolson's Seam Room.