The Shepherd's Life

The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District

Cover of 2015 UK Hardback
Author James Rebanks
Publisher Allen Lane
Publication date
 2 April 2015
Pages 320
ISBN 978-1846148545

The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District is an autobiographical book by James Rebanks, a sheep farmer from Matterdale, Cumbria, England, published by Allen Lane in 2015.[1]

As Rebanks writes in his own book that he was moved and inspired by another book with almost the same title, A Shepherd's Life by W.H. Hudson who wrote about Wiltshire sheep-farming in early years of the last century. According to Rebanks, Hudson's was considered a classic by Ernest Hemingway.

Rebanks' book was the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week in April 2015,[2][3] and was adapted for theatre by Chris Monks and produced at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, in March 2016.[4] The theatrical production included life-sized puppet sheepdogs and sheep.[5]

Rebanks describes the traditional way of life of shepherds on the Cumbrian fells and vales, and his determination to continue to farm where generations of his forebears had done. After an unsuccessful school education he later studied for A levels in evening classes and graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford University with a double first in history. He still farms Herdwick sheep, while also running a business consultancy based at his farm,[6] and has a following of 60,000 on Twitter as "Herdwick Shepherd".[7]

The book was published in large print and in the United States as The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape.[8] (Thorndike Press large print edition, ISBN 978-1410484550; Flatiron books, ISBN 978-1250060242).

In 2015 Rebanks published a second book, The Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd (Penguin, ISBN 9781846148903).

References

  1. ↑ Carter, Helen (2 May 2015). "James Rebanks: The farmer and best-selling author of The Shepherd's Life on dealing with new-found fame - while delivering lambs". The Independent. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  2. ↑ "The Shepherd's Life". Book of the Week. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  3. ↑ "Herdwick Shepherd: The life that has transfixed 45,000 people". Magazine. BBC News. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Gardner, Lyn (29 March 2016). "The Shepherd's Life review – gentle farming wisdom and animal magic". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Longstaffe, Stephen (20 March 2016). "The Shepherd's Life review at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick – 'entertaining and moving'". The Stage. Retrieved 17 April 2016. Includes photograph of puppet sheep
  6. ↑ "Rebanks Consulting". Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  7. ↑ Kellaway, Kate (3 May 2015). "Shepherd James Rebanks: 'My ambition is to be a really good nobody'". Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Kakutani, Michiko (1 June 2015). "Review: 'The Shepherd's Life,' by James Rebanks, an English Sheep Farmer". New York Times. Retrieved 17 April 2016.


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