I highly recommend English Pastoral by James Rebanks.
It follows his highly successful bestseller The Shepherd’s Life, and has also become a bestseller and won numerous awards.
“There is a very thin line between idealism and bullshit.” - James Rebanks, English Pastoral
James Rebanks’ family have been sheep farmers in the Lake District in England for at least 600 years. That’s as far back as the records go, but it may be longer.
He never had any desire to do anything with his life other than farming. But he won a scholarship to Oxford University, and graduated with a double first (the highest level degree) in History… and then went back to sheep farming on his family farm, which is still his main occupation today.
He has also worked for Unesco as an expert advisor on sustainable farming, sustainable tourism, and world heritage sites. He cares a lot about ecology and the environment, and encouraging wild animals, birds, insects, and plants in a farming environment.
English Pastoral is a wonderful account of three generatons of farmers, brilliantly written and highly readable. Rebanks writes about the things closest to his heart with complete honesty and penetrating intelligence.
Despite the title, it’s not at all an idealised book. It’s a practical, hard-headed view of farming and how it’s changed and evolved over the last 50-60 years.
He covers family farmers having to compete with large comglomerates, factory farms, and cheap imported food. He talks about the damage pesticides, fertizers, and large areas dedicated to single crops do to the enviroment. He talks about food production in the modern world in general.
His book is shortlisted for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Writing – as well as being the Sunday Times Nature Book of the Year.
His family moved in three generatons from old-style mixed farming to modern industrial farming methods, and then back to sustainable, carbon-neutral, ecologically friendly mixed farming.
It’s a fascinating, profound, thought-provoking book, never glib and with no easy solutions, which will change your ideas about food and farming in the modern world.
Guardian review: