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

Author(s): James Rebanks

Biography and Memoir | Staff Favourites | Travel Writing

 Old world met new when a shepherd in the English Lake District impulsively started a Twitter account. A routine cell phone upgrade left author James Rebanks with a pretty decent camera and a pre-loaded Twitter app--the tools to share his way of life with the world. And what began as a tentative experiment became an international phenomenon.James has worked the land for years, as did his father, and his father before him. His family has lived and farmed in the Lake District of Northern England as long as there have been written records (since 1420) and possibly much longer. And while the land itself has inspired great poets and authors we have rarely heard from the people who tend it. One Twitter account has changed all that, and now James Rebanks has broken free of the 140-character limit and produced "the book I have wanted to write my whole life." The Shepherd's Life is a memoir about growing up amidst a magical, storied landscape, of coming of age in the 1980s and 1990s among hills that seem timeless, and yet suffused with history. Broken into the four seasons, the book chronicles the author's daily experiences at work with his flock and brings alive his family and their ancient way of life, which at times can seem irreconcilable with the modern world.An astonishing original work, The Shepherd's Life is an intimate look from inside a seemingly ordinary life, one that celebrates the meaning of place, the ties of family to the land around them, and the beauty of the past. It is the untold story of the Lake District, of a people who exist and endure out of sight in the midst of the most iconic literary landscape in the world.  

This is a story told in seasons, generations and centuries rather than years. It speaks of tradition and timelessness, describing lives and the Lakes District landscape in terms of patterns rather than events. Despite such breadth of perspective, it is immediate and enthralling. For a man taught early that there was idleness and little of use in books, James Rebanks has produced one filled with acute observation and spare, unsentimental prose which flows beautifully. It is effortless to read.


In describing the life of a modern-day shepherd, the author writes of family, animals, community and nature in a way which speaks deeply and directly to our own search for meaning, belonging and place in a confused and confusing outside world. We must hang on to and learn from places and lives such as this, which ask profound questions of our notions of wealth, success and a life well lived. They are an antidote to the alienation of the “life behind glass” of a modern, urbanised existence. In this small place, the lightning-fast spread of modernity has been resisted, offering us more evidence against the inevitability and desirability of a globalised homogenised world. - Mark


Product Information

Shortlisted for Ondaatje Prize 2016.

General Fields

  • : 9780141979366
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : Penguin Books Ltd
  • : October 2015
  • : April 2016
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : James Rebanks
  • : 292