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Pastoral Song: A Farmer's Journey
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About This Book
As a boy, James Rebanks's grandfather taught him to work the land the old way. Their family farm in the Lake District hills was part of an ancient agricultural landscape: a patchwork of crops and meadows, of pastures grazed with livestock, and hedgerows teeming with wildlife. And yet, by the time James inherited the farm, it was barely recognisable. The men and women had vanished from the fields; the old stone barns had crumbled; the skies had emptied of birds and their wind-blown song. English Pastoral is the story of an inheritance: one that affects us all. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world were brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were lost. And yet this elegy from the northern fells is also a song of hope: of how, guided by the past, one farmer began to salvage a tiny corner of England that was now his, doing his best to restore the life that had vanished and to leave a legacy for the future. This is a book about what it means to have love and pride in a place, and how, against all the odds, it may still be possible to build a new pastoral: not a utopia, but somewhere decent for us all.
Reviews
"Rebanks' passion...permeates Pastoral Song ..."
"Rebanks is neither a philosopher nor a Jeffersonian agrarian idealist."
"Rebanks makes a strong, measured argument for a sensible mix between the old and the new ..."
"The heavy percussion of his polemic sometimes overwhelms the rhythm of Rebanks's prose; he's more persuasive when he lets personal experience speak for him ..."
"Rebanks shows clearly that hope hinges on who exactly is willing to pay the real price of food and good farming."
"Superbly written and deeply insightful, the book captivates the reader until the journey's end ..."
"[A] beautifully written elegy to traditional farmers and farming methods ..."
"The narrative interweaves tender reflections on the rhythms of farm life with pointed discussions of the differences between traditional and modern methods ..."
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