A review by jennifer
The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District by James Rebanks

4.0

A book about the Lake District that turns the classic incomer version of the rural idyll memoir on its head. Told by an Oxford-educated fell sheep farmer, The Shepherd's Life gives an insider version of life in the Lake District that's compelling (and a little chastising) to anyone who's ever visited and loved the area. There are obligatory mentions of Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter (who became a respected sheep farmer herself), but this story of the families who've farmed the fells for generations was mostly new to me. As an itinerant, I've always find stories of people so deeply rooted to one part of the world -- "hefted" in sheep terminology, as the author explains in the opening pages of the book -- deeply compelling.