True Story Book Club: The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District by James Rebanks
The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District by James Rebanks (320 pages)
Some people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks' isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first
son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations. Their
way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand, and has been for hundreds of years. A Viking would
understand the work they do: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where
the flocks are replenished; the grueling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that
comes with spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the fells.