English Pastoral is a love letter to British farming and a message of hope following multiple crises in recent years: industrialisation, biodiversity loss, the erosion of the value of produce and livestock, and many others. Whilst telling the story of his early farming education and his later realisation that they had forsaken the old ways in favour of something worse, James outlines the problems with modern farming methods, government policy and consumer practices, and provides hope that change is possible.
Date read: December 2023 to January 2024
Genre: non-fiction, memoir, farming, nature
Format: audiobook
Date published: September 2020
I've never visited the fells, never been a sheep farmer, but James' prose evoked such a strong sense of place and purpose in me that I feel as if I have done both. It's a cliché, but its such a rare thing to be transported so fully[1] that I feel justified in its use. As in another book I recently discovered (Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain[2]) there is such a strong sense of intimacy with a place, that it left me inspired, moved and a little sad.
I may never live in a place and know it as intimately as Rebanks or Shepherd, so I'm grateful to those who do. My lot is to be more mobile, to know more landscapes and to know them superficially. In a way, I'm inspired to know my landscapes as well as I can in the time I have with them, but both Rebanks and Shepherd would say I don't really know them.
I guess that now we’ve moved to New Zealand, my challenge should be to find similar local books. What are the books about Kiwi sheep farmers? Is there anyone here doing anything similar to what James has done? (I.e. treading the fine line between agriculture and ecology, trying to make a working farm as harmonious with nature as possible.)
Who are the Kiwi writers so intimate with their local river, or mountain, or beach, that they can write about it so strikingly? I'd love to know, especially since these are now the landscapes I can tread.
Footnotes
[1] Particularly in a book about agriculture
[2] In this case writing about the Cairngorms, another characterful north Britain landscape, and another place I've only visited in prose.
Thank you for allowing me into your day. Until next time: aroha | love x