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The Yorkshire Shepherdess by Amanda Owen #inbetweeny

Another weekend in the countryside, another book about rearing sheep! This was purchased from Sedburgh, England's book town apparently. I had wanted to read it for a while but high pricing on Amazon had put me off.  A trip to a cheap bookshop in Sedburgh later and I was filling the holiday houses roll top bath and diving in to both book and bath.

I was a little disappointed given the books strap line 'how I left city life behind to raise a family and a flock' to find that Owens previous life took place in Huddersfield where she left at an early age to gain experience farming. I expected a solicitor or an accountant who gave up living in London not a trainee farmer who met her farm owning husband and moved into a ready made farm. I did however enjoy the early stories of her farming experiences.

Those of you following the blog will be aware I recently read the excellent Shepherds Life by James Rebanks and where this book primarily differed was with Owens birthing stories. In the book she gives birth to 7 children non without event and I enjoyed reading them all.

In the book she clearly references the fact that her and her husband speak broad Yorkshire and I did wonder reading the book how much of the writing was her own words. There were a lot of occasions where a sentence would be said following three dots "clearly he wasn't as memorable to as she was to him..." which was quite distinctive throughout the book but equally the writing was very incongruous with the various "whoa, don't throw any more of these on t'fire till I've looked in 'em,"

I didn't necessarily agree with every aspect of Owens outlook on life and the book certainly didn't encompass the total devotion that Rebanks book oozed from every sentence. But if you're after a more light hearted, generic book about farming this is worth a browse (especially if you're in a roll top bath on holiday).


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