James Rebanks

Last updated

James Rebanks
Born1974 (age 4849)
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]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beatrix Potter</span> British childrens writer and illustrator (1866–1943)

Helen Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which was her first commercially published work in 1902. Her books, including 23 Tales, have sold more than 250 million copies. An entrepreneur, Potter was a pioneer of character merchandising. In 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy, making him the oldest licensed character.

<i>The Archers</i> British radio soap opera

The Archers is a British radio soap opera currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural setting". Having aired over 20,000 episodes, it is the world's longest-running present-day drama by number of episodes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farmer</span> Person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer might own the farm land or might work as a laborer on land owned by others. In most developed economies, a "farmer" is usually a farm owner (landowner), while employees of the farm are known as farm workers. However, in other older definitions a farmer was a person who promotes or improves the growth of plants, land or crops or raises animals by labor and attention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pastoral</span> Literary, art, and music genre that takes its name from the lifestyle of shepherds herding livestock

The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target audience is typically an urban one. A pastoral is a work of this genre. A piece of music in the genre is usually referred to as a pastorale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Hogg</span> Scottish poet and novelist (1770–1835)

James Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many of the great writers of his day, including Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorised biography. He became widely known as the "Ettrick Shepherd", a nickname under which some of his works were published, and the character name he was given in the widely read series Noctes Ambrosianae, published in Blackwood's Magazine. He is best known today for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. His other works include the long poem The Queen's Wake (1813), his collection of songs Jacobite Relics (1819), and his two novels The Three Perils of Man (1822), and The Three Perils of Woman (1823).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transhumance</span> Type of pastoralism

Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions, it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Generally only the herds travel, with a certain number of people necessary to tend them, while the main population stays at the base. In contrast, horizontal transhumance is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic, or political change.

<i>Far from the Madding Crowd</i> 1874 novel by Thomas Hardy

Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth published novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herdwick</span> Breed of sheep

The Herdwick is a breed of domestic sheep native to the Lake District in North West England. The name "Herdwick" is derived from the Old Norse herdvyck, meaning sheep pasture. Though low in lambing capacity and perceived wool quality when compared to more common commercial breeds, Herdwicks are prized for their robust health, their ability to live solely on forage, and their tendency to be territorial and not to stray over the difficult upland terrain of the Lake District. It is considered that up to 99% of all Herdwick sheep are commercially farmed in the central and western Lake District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kangal Shepherd Dog</span> Turkish breed of dog

The Kangal Shepherd Dog is a traditional Turkish breed of large livestock guardian dog. The breed name derives from that of the town and district of Kangal in Sivas Province, the easternmost province of the Central Anatolia Region in central Turkey. The coat colour varies from pale fawn to wolf grey, always with a black mask.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gavin Esler</span> Scottish journalist and TV presenter

Gavin William James Esler is a Scottish journalist, television presenter and author. He was a main presenter on BBC Two's flagship political analysis programme, Newsnight, from January 2003 until January 2014, and presenter of BBC News at Five on the BBC News Channel. Since 2014 he has served as the Chancellor of the University of Kent. On 11 March 2017, Esler confirmed via his Twitter profile that he would be leaving the BBC at the end of the month to concentrate on his writing activities. He returned to the BBC later that year as host of Talking Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giles Coren</span> British food critic, television presenter (born 1969)

Giles Robin Patrick Coren is a British columnist, food writer, and television and radio presenter. He has been a restaurant critic for The Times newspaper since 2002, and was named Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cattle station</span> Large Australian farm

In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm, the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a grazier. The largest cattle station in the world is Anna Creek Station in South Australia, which covers an area of 23,677 square kilometres.

<i>Shaun the Sheep</i> British childrens television series

Shaun the Sheep is a British stop-motion animated silent comedy children's television series and a spin-off of the Wallace and Gromit franchise. The title character is Shaun. The series focuses on his adventures on a northern English farm as the leader of his flock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shepherd</span> Person who tends, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep

A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherd derives from Old English sceaphierde. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, it exists in all parts of the globe, and it is an important part of pastoralist animal husbandry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highland Clearances</span> Eviction of tenants from the Scottish Highlands in the 18th and 19th centuries

The Highland Clearances were the forced evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Henson</span> British television personality (born 1966)

Adam John Lincoln Henson is an English farmer, author and television presenter.

William Spence Peter was a pioneer pastoralist of South Australia and New Zealand, and a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council from 1868 to 1891.

<i>The Shepherds Life</i> 2015 book by James Rebanks

The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District is an autobiographical book by James Rebanks, a sheep farmer from Matterdale, Cumbria, England, published by Allen Lane in 2015.

Amanda Owen is an English shepherdess, writer and presenter.

<i>Clarksons Farm</i> British television documentary series with Jeremy Clarkson

Clarkson's Farm is a British television documentary series about Jeremy Clarkson and his farm in the Cotswolds. The first season was released by Amazon Prime Video on 11 June 2021. The series documents Clarkson's attempts at running a 1,000-acre (400 ha) farm in the Cotswolds, and it has received largely positive reviews. In July 2021, it was renewed for a second series which was released on 10 February 2023. The second series became the most-watched original series on Amazon in the UK in 2023. In October 2022, the programme was renewed for a third series.

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.