By Canon Mike D Willliams
An ode to the land, rhythms of life and the changing life of farming. Sitting on his grandfather’s tractor as he learns how the farming year unfolds, readers are taken on a journey through the fields and timeless landscapes of the Lake District.
Rebanks’ first book, A Shepherd’s Life, was a huge success, and this one is equally popular. Here, he takes a broader view of the changes in farming during his lifetime. He tells the story in three sections. Beginning with how he learnt farming from his grandfather in a traditional pastoral manner with field rotation and living in harmony with nature, but noticing that farms in the lower valley were changing to become more efficient.
Part two tells of modernisation with the rise of new machines and consumers supplied by supermarkets who drive down prices paid to farmers. The use of pesticides, removing hedges and the loss of rotational crops, plus the slow impact on nature with the loss of bird life and soil damage. You feel the tension in the father-son relationship surrounding the battle with debt and a never-ending pressure to find greater efficiency. Rebanks then inherits what was his grandfather’s farm in the Fells when his father dies. The final section tells the story of restoration of the land and nature. Huge floods in Cumbria brings the opportunity of grants to change the farming landscape to slow and hold the rainwater from the Fells. It is a story of discovery – 200 species of grasses and flowers, thanks to his grandfather’s way of farming. Wildlife returns and his sheep and cattle work with the landscape. Stewarding the landscape does not provide an income and in that story lies the dilemma and raises questions for us all about our relationship with nature.
The book delves into themes of inheritance, loss and the possibility of renewal. The gain from modern agriculture and cheap food has come at a great cost to local communities, farming families, nature and the land. Britain is one of the most biodiverse, depleted landscapes, yet we cannot simply blame the farmers. As consumers of food, how do we all take responsibility for the declining ecological health of the countryside?
Rebanks is hefted to his land. He writes simply but with a sense of beauty, and uses descriptions that share the delight of being outside on a dawn morning checking on his cattle and sheep. In looking forward, his children are drawn into watching the owl hunting and handling the lambs. What will be their inheritance? That is the final question for Rebanks. But it is not just his children’s inheritance he is questioning, but all of our children as we face choices each time we shop for food. A delightful and thoughtful read.