English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks
Having just seen Six Inches of Soil, a documentary film about regenerative farming1 (which I highly recommend), this book seemed an appropriate one to add to our Bookshelf this month.
It is a wonderful book, beautifully written and telling a story that carries a great deal of power coming from an author whose family has farmed the Cumbrian hills for generations. It takes us on a journey from the farming methods of James Rebanks’ grandfather, through the changes that brought a ‘modern’ style of agriculture, to his eventual realisation that these new ways are damaging the land. Like one of the farmers in the film he now raises Belted Galloway cattle alongside his traditional Herdwick sheep.
Although the book is in many ways poetic, it is not a dewy-eyed homage to the past. Farmers, even ones who are best-selling authors, still face commercial reality in a world of complex systems of subsidy and procurement.
It’s interesting to note that James Rebanks recently turned down a non-executive director role at Defra, on the basis he didn’t want to be ‘window-dressing for decline and failure’2. Let us hope that the government exceeds his expectations.
1 Read Our Farming Correspondent's assessment of the film and find out where to see it.