James Rebanks

Last updated

James Rebanks
Born1974 (age 50–51)
Education University of Oxford (BA)
Awards Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing (2021)
Writing career
Genre Pastoral
Notable works The Shepherd's Life

James Rebanks (born 1974) [1] is an English sheep farmer and author, from Matterdale in Cumbria. [2] His first book, the autobiography The Shepherd's Life , was published in 2015, [3] and he published English Pastoral in 2020. [4] [5] He also published The Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd in 2015 [6] and The Shepherd's View: Modern Photographs from an Ancient Landscape in 2016. [7]

Contents

Early life and education

Rebanks left school at the age of 16 to work on his family's farm with two GCSEs in woodworking and religious studies. [3] He took A levels at evening classes in Carlisle before studying at Magdalen College, Oxford, [3] [8] where he achieved a double first in history. [9]

Career

Following his degree, Rebanks returned to farming, which he continues to do, specialising in Herdwick sheep but moving towards a more mixed farm. He has also run a consultancy based at his farm. [10] [11] He was involved in the bid for the Lake District to receive World Heritage status (which was approved by UNESCO in 2017), [12] [13] and as of December 2020 had a following of 141,667 on Twitter as "Herdwick Shepherd" (@herdyshepherd1).

In 2018 he resigned from a government panel set up by Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Michael Gove, and also took a break from Twitter after the composition of the panel was criticised by environmentalists as being biased towards the farming community. [14]

In 2019 he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs . His chosen music included tracks by Rachmaninoff, Nina Simone, and Kirsty MacColl (the choice he would rescue from the waves); his chosen book was The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, and his luxury was pen and paper. [1] He has also appeared on BBC Radio 3's Private Passions [15] and Radio 4's On Your Farm. [16] In December 2021 he guest-edited Radio 4's Today programme. [17]

In 2021 English Pastoral won the Wainwright Prize in the Nature Writing category. [18]

He spent a season on the island of Færøy in the Vega Archipelago off northern Norway, learning about the traditional practice of caring for wild eider ducks and gathering their down. His book describing this time, The Place of Tides, was shortlisted for the Stanford Travel Book of the Year in 2025. [19] [20] [21]

Selected publications

References

  1. 1 2 "James Rebanks, Shepherd and Writer". Desert Island Discs. BBC Radio 4. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  2. ↑ Moran, Caitlin (4 September 2020). "Caitlin Moran meets James Rebanks, Lake District sheep farmer turned Twitter activist". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 28 December 2021.(subscription required)
  3. 1 2 3 Rebanks, James (2 April 2015). The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District. London: Allen Lane. ISBN   978-1846148545.
  4. ↑ Rebanks, James (3 September 2020). English Pastoral: an inheritance. London: Allen Lane. ISBN   9780241245729.
  5. ↑ Morrison, Blake (3 September 2020). "English Pastoral by James Rebanks review – how to look after the land". The Guardian . Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  6. ↑ Rebanks, James (5 November 2015). The Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd. London: Penguin Books. ISBN   9781846148903.
  7. ↑ Rebanks, James (18 October 2016). The Shepherd's View: Modern Photographs from an Ancient Landscape. London: Flatiron Books. ISBN   978-1250103369.
  8. ↑ "James Rebanks: One shepherd and his beloved Herdwick sheep". The Shepherd's Life. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 28 December 2021. People think travel broadens the mind, I'm not so sure. I think a focus on, and love of, one place can make people rather sensible, decent, and wise
  9. ↑ Carter, Helen (2 May 2015). "The farmer and best-selling author of The Shepherd's Life talks about dealing with new-found fame". The Independent . Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  10. ↑ "About us". Rebanks Consulting Ltd. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016.
  11. ↑ Kellaway, Kate (3 May 2015). "Shepherd James Rebanks: 'My ambition is to be a really good nobody'". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  12. ↑ Fraser, Harriet (8 March 2014). "The hill farmers fighting for their livelihoods". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 28 December 2021.(subscription required)
  13. ↑ Sulcas, Roslyn (5 June 2015). "James Rebanks, Man of Sheep, Man of Letters (Published 2015)". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 28 December 2021.(subscription required)
  14. ↑ "Twitter's favourite shepherd quits government review of National Parks after three days due to 'cretinous attacks' from environmentalists". The Daily Telegraph. 24 June 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2021.(subscription required)
  15. ↑ "James Rebanks". Private Passions. BBC Radio 3. 21 March 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  16. ↑ "James Rebanks, the Herdy Shepherd". On Your Farm. BBC Radio 4. 10 May 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  17. ↑ "Today". BBC Radio 4. 28 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  18. ↑ Flood, Alison (7 September 2021). "Wainwright prize for nature writing goes to James Rebanks for English Pastoral". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  19. ↑ Peirson-Hagger, Ellen (13 October 2024). "The Place of Tides by James Rebanks review – a warming tale of gathering eiderdown in Norway". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  20. ↑ Atkins, Will (14 October 2024). "The Place of Tides by James Rebanks — an elegiac tale of the 'duck women' of the far north". www.ft.com. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  21. ↑ "Shortlists for the 2025 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards presented by Viking". Stanfords. 8 April 2025. Archived from the original on 22 January 2025. Retrieved 8 April 2025.
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