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laurencesenter 's review for:
The Secret Life of Cows
by Rosamund Young
If you can get through the anthropomorphism, polemics and Alan Bennett's introduction there are some fascinating observations of a seemingly unique farm life.
I would have liked more of this and more explanation of how the farm worked. I was puzzled by the repeated assertion that the cows knew best and could manage themselves with the scant descriptions of the huge amount of work that goes into the farm. I found it odd that this was so undervalued as well as the avoidance of almost any description of death for meat production. Rosamund Young goes into repeated detail about the grief her animals feel others die of natural causes and I found this and other omissions of farm life disingenuous at best.
I came away with the sense this was a book to reassure a certain type of mawkishness about country living and while it's clear that the farm has had some amazing successes in animal welfare this is obscured by oozing sentimentality.
Read a Shepherd's life instead.
I would have liked more of this and more explanation of how the farm worked. I was puzzled by the repeated assertion that the cows knew best and could manage themselves with the scant descriptions of the huge amount of work that goes into the farm. I found it odd that this was so undervalued as well as the avoidance of almost any description of death for meat production. Rosamund Young goes into repeated detail about the grief her animals feel others die of natural causes and I found this and other omissions of farm life disingenuous at best.
I came away with the sense this was a book to reassure a certain type of mawkishness about country living and while it's clear that the farm has had some amazing successes in animal welfare this is obscured by oozing sentimentality.
Read a Shepherd's life instead.