The memory hooks of farming books

I saw a tweet from @AmandaOwen8 yesterday about the book she is working on, and I was reminded of all the good farming books that I have on the shelf at home that I don't look at often enough. Here is a run-down of a few of them.

 

Hill Shepherd and Life in The Hills

 

It turns out that Amanda's favourite book is Hill Shepherd and this is what prompted her to become a shepherdess herself. She is now mates with the chap carrying the hay on the front, and her now husband also appears in the book. Both books are brilliant, with cracking photographs and commentary that you never tire of. I bought Life in the Hills first, then ended up inheriting Hill Shepherd from my Uncle - it had been a present from his partner to him at Christmas 1989, and he was a shepherd on a hill farm in Marsden, West Yorkshire. I treasure mine with its big farmyard muck thumbprint on the front page. It shows it was loved and still has a faint whiff of pipe smoke. A classic - get a copy!

 

I Bought a Mountain

 

The all time favourite, I must have read this a dozen times. I was told about this book when I worked in a butchers shop washing out after school. There was a butcher called Steve who worked there part time, and even though he lived in town he was a countryman at heart. He kept pigeons like a true Yorkshireman and lent me his copy first. He would serve the last few customers whilst I was mopping the floor and we would have a chat about Thomas Firbank and his adventures in Snowdonia. I bought this copy from a bookshop in Betws-y-Coed, and the owner remembered Firbank's wife Esme driving the sheep wagon through town. He had a little shrine to the book at the back of the shop with photographs and newspaper cuttings. I also did a review of this book here a while ago.      

 

The James Herriot books

 

 

What is not to like about these brilliant stories? I remember watching All Creatures Great and Small when I was younger, and bought this job lot for 30p each in a sweaty real ale pub I used to frequent in Huddersfield called The Sair when they had a book sale. The characters are pretty timeless, and when I think about clipping sheep around Thirsk relatively recently I am pretty sure you could write a similar book now as the same stories still ring true. All of the books are worth a read.  

 

Farmers Progress 

 

George Henderson was an old pro at these types of books, and wrote another one called the Farming Ladder which was very popular. Farmers Progress is a good one, and combined with the Farming Ladder is a how-to guide for getting into farming. Not entirely sure how this would work now, but his books are definitely worth a read. I was given this by someone I met who farmed at Botton Farm at Danby here in the North York Moors, and was a big fan of the book. I also like the history attached to my copy - someone received this first time around on Coronation Day in 1953. I like that.

 

 

What are your favourite farming books, and what is the story behind them for you?