A book about a shepherd’s life in the Lake District runs the risk of either descending into cosy, sub-James Herriot twinkling or becoming hugely technical and thus impenetrable to a general audience. James Rebanks’s excellent debut dodges both pitfalls. Following on from his popular Twitter account as “Herdwick shepherd”, Rebanks offers a fascinating account of his life in farming that is in equal parts memoir, social commentary and procedural. Even for the most committed urbanite, it’s a brilliant read.
Rebanks is rightly proud of his heritage as a shepherd, describing his work on the land in terms of respect and gratitude. He deftly sketches character studies of his ancestors, most notably his grandfather, who was his mentor. Yet Rebanks, after initially taking no interest in school work, became an autodidact late in his teens and went to Oxford to read history.
His account of the process he went through to get there, and what he made of his experiences, is a wry corrective to generations of memoirs extolling the dreaming spires. Rebanks says instead: “I felt like an island in a sea of other people.” And he surprised his tutor by telling him that he intended to return to shepherding when he finished his degree.
By the end of the book it’s clear that nothing else would suffice. Rebanks does not glamorise the difficult and often unrewarding work he undertakes, but expresses a quiet sense of satisfaction at a taxing job done as well as can be. In the acknowledgements he writes: “I have no interest in personal celebrity; our way of life is much more important to me.” This quiet and modest man might yet get a surprise.
The Shepherd’s Life is published by Allen Lane (£16.99). Click here to buy it for £12.99
