The Sheep Stell
Memoirs of a Shepherd
Published on 15. March 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-4721-2861-4 (ISBN)
Description
'Every animal needs its own territory and humans are no exception. My plans were clear at an early age. I intended to live somewhere wild and supremely beautiful . . . I imagined searching the whole world for a place, high and remote as a sheep stell, quiet as a monastery, challenging and virginal, untouched and unknown.'
Over twenty years ago, well before the current trend for nature writing, Janet White wrote The Sheep Stell, a beautiful and evocative memoir about her life as a shepherdess.
Throughout her life Janet has always tended sheep - first as a young woman in the Cheviot Hills, where she was treated with bewilderment by the other shepherds, before leaving Britain to live on an uninhabited island off the coast of New Zealand with a bonfire as her only means of communication with the mainland and only her flock of 200 sheep for company. After a brutal attack by an obsessed young man bent on her destruction, she was forced to leave her beloved island and return to England, where she married, became a smallholder in Sussex and finally bought a hill farm in Somerset where she still lives today. Her memoir tells the tale of a woman before her time, with incredible courage and determination, and wanting only peace and solitude in nature and a life with animals. Underpinning The Sheep Stell is Janet's devotion to the land and her total commitment to combining the principles of conservation with successful farming.
Janet White is a trailblazer, both in her life and work. The Sheep Stell is testament to that and homage to the nature we're so rapidly losing touch with. It is a true celebration of the pastoral and pure escapism to a simpler life.
'This is a strange and lovely book, and quiet as it is, it makes you gasp at the profoundly lived quality of the life it so modestly describes' Jenny Diski
'A hymn to country solitude, lyrical, unpretentious and deeply felt' Colin Thubron
Over twenty years ago, well before the current trend for nature writing, Janet White wrote The Sheep Stell, a beautiful and evocative memoir about her life as a shepherdess.
Throughout her life Janet has always tended sheep - first as a young woman in the Cheviot Hills, where she was treated with bewilderment by the other shepherds, before leaving Britain to live on an uninhabited island off the coast of New Zealand with a bonfire as her only means of communication with the mainland and only her flock of 200 sheep for company. After a brutal attack by an obsessed young man bent on her destruction, she was forced to leave her beloved island and return to England, where she married, became a smallholder in Sussex and finally bought a hill farm in Somerset where she still lives today. Her memoir tells the tale of a woman before her time, with incredible courage and determination, and wanting only peace and solitude in nature and a life with animals. Underpinning The Sheep Stell is Janet's devotion to the land and her total commitment to combining the principles of conservation with successful farming.
Janet White is a trailblazer, both in her life and work. The Sheep Stell is testament to that and homage to the nature we're so rapidly losing touch with. It is a true celebration of the pastoral and pure escapism to a simpler life.
'This is a strange and lovely book, and quiet as it is, it makes you gasp at the profoundly lived quality of the life it so modestly describes' Jenny Diski
'A hymn to country solitude, lyrical, unpretentious and deeply felt' Colin Thubron
Reviews / Votes
One woman's gloriously lyrical account of life and love as a shepherdess * Mail on Sunday * Janet White's unfailingly enjoyable book . . . taps into a widespread feeling that we have become cut off from the natural world . . . both an evocative picture of a life adapted to seasonal rhythms and an arresting account of the casual sexism White experienced -- Rebecca Foster * Times Literary Supplement * Lovers of the countryside will enjoy this moving, quietly written account of a young woman's adventures as she made her way in the farming world . . . An immensely enjoyable and heartfelt book: it makes you want to run for the hills -- Rebecca Wallersteiner * The Lady * A fascinating read that will move and inspire with every turn of the page * Countryside * Intense insight -- Helen Brown * Daily Mail * A hymn to country solitude, lyrical, unpretentious and deeply felt * Colin Thubron * This is a strange and lovely book, and quiet as it is, it makes you gasp at the profoundly lived quality of the life it so modestly describes * Jenny Diski * A book to share or even fight over if necessary * Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows * An extraordinary memoir . . . The Sheep Stell is pure joy, one of the most moving books I've read in a long time * Philip Marsden, author of Rising Ground * Utterly enchanting; a fascinating story, beautifully written * Penny Junor, author of The Duchess: The Untold Story * Janet White's book should be compulsory reading * John Barrington, author of Red Sky at Night * Janet writes delightfully of her unique life story and ultimately tranquil life on her West Country farm. But that idyllic lifestyle belies the steely determination that led her to the other side of the world and unforeseen drama, as she pursued her dream of shepherding * David Kennard, author of A Shepherd's Watch * A beautifully written memoir of a quietly courageous life. My admiration for its author grew on every page: her strength of purpose, her resolve, and her clear, straightforward love of solitude, space and freedom that carried her - and carried me - around the world and back * Nick Hunt, author of Where the Wild Winds Are *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Illustrations
Integrated b/w line drawings
Dimensions
Height: 218 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
306 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4721-2861-4 (9781472128614)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
After sixty lambings, one marriage and a big family, Janet White is now in her eighties and continues to farm in the West Country, zooming around the Quantocks on a quad bike.