James Rebanks

James Rebanks (born 1974)[1] is an English sheep farmer and author, from Matterdale in Cumbria.[2] His first book was The Shepherd's Life, published by Allen Lane in 2015, and he published English Pastoral in 2020.[3] He also published The Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd in 2015 (Penguin, ISBN 9781846148903) and The Shepherd's View: Modern Photographs from an Ancient Landscape in 2016 (Flatiron: ISBN 978-1250103369).

The Shepherds life is partly autobiographical. Rebanks writes of leaving school at the age of 16, and then doing A levels at evening classes before being accepted by Oxford University where he achieved a double first in history.[4] Following his degree, he 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.[5][6] He was involved in the bid for the Lake District to receive World Heritage status (which was approved by UNESCO in 2017),[7][8] and as of December 2020 had a following of 141,667 on Twitter as "Herdwick Shepherd".[9]

In 2018 he resigned from a government panel set up by 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.[10]

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]

Selected publications
  • Rebanks, James (2015). The shepherd's life : a tale of the Lake District. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-1846148545.
  • Rebanks, James (2015). The Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd. London: Penguin. ISBN 9781846148903.
  • Rebanks, James (2016). The Shepherd's View: Modern Photographs from an Ancient Landscape. London: Flatiron. ISBN 978-1250103369.
  • Rebanks, James (2020). English Pastoral: an inheritance. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 9780241245729.

References
  1. "James Rebanks, Shepherd and Writer". Desert Island Discs. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  2. Moran, Caitlin (4 September 2020). "Caitlin Moran meets James Rebanks, Lake District sheep farmer turned Twitter activist". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  3. Morrison, Blake (3 September 2020). "English Pastoral by James Rebanks review – how to look after the land". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  4. 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 30 December 2020.
  5. "Rebanks Consulting". Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  6. Kellaway, Kate (3 May 2015). "Shepherd James Rebanks: 'My ambition is to be a really good nobody'". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  7. Fraser, Harriet (8 March 2014). "The hill farmers fighting for their livelihoods". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  8. Sulcas, Roslyn (5 June 2015). "James Rebanks, Man of Sheep, Man of Letters (Published 2015)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  9. "Herdwick Shepherd". Twitter. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  10. "Twitter's favourite shepherd quits government review of National Parks after three days due to 'cretinous attacks' from environmentalists". The Telegraph. 24 June 2018. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
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