The Shepherd’s Life 

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Bryan Dick

James Rebanks

Sian Preece

Kirsteen Cameron

The Shepherd's Life: Episode 1

The Shepherd's Life

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - The Shepherd's Life, Episode 1

James Rebanks's powerful account of growing up in a farming family in the Lake District.

James Rebanks's powerful account of his life as a traditional sheep farmer in the Lake District. Read by Bryan Dick.

Some people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks's isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations.

It's a life lived according to the demands of the seasons: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where the flocks are replenished; the gruelling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that comes with spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the fells.

Through his eyes, we see that the Lake District is not a playground or a scenic backdrop, it's a working landscape that needs sheep and its farmers to survive.

James Rebanks has a huge following on Twitter (using his moniker: @herdyshepherd1) where you can see photographs detailing day to day life on the farm - including his fine flock of Herdwick sheep and, the latest additions to the workforce, sheepdog Floss's ten puppies.


Read by Bryan Dick
Written by James Rebanks
Abridged by Sian Preece
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron


Music details:
Track: "The Nightshift"
CD: Country Escape
Label: BBC Production Music BBCPM031.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2015.

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

By James Rebanks. Emotional account of growing up in a farming family in the Lake District

By James Rebanks. Passionate account of growing up in a farming family in the Lake District. Read by Bryan Dick.

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