I first heard of Amanda when she and her family were featured on Ben Fogle’s ‘New Lives in the Wild’. The programme left me wanting more, so I was delighted to stumble across the tv series which followed their day to day lives. I only recently realised that, not only does Amanda cope with a very busy farm and family, but she has also written 3 books!

‘The Yorkshire Shepherdess’ is book number one, and Amanda’s back-story – it tells us how she first became a shepherdess and how she then came to live and farm at Ravenseat. Like the author herself, the book is compelling. Tales of the everyday ups and downs of living on a remote, isolated farm, are written with warmth, humour and realism – Amanda doesn’t hold back from including instances of when things didn’t go quite the right way.

Characters are brought to life throughout the book by Amanda’s vivid descriptions, as are the hills and dales of the beautiful but harsh Yorkshire moors.  ‘The Yorkshire Shepherdess’ is written in an honest, no-nonsense, style which takes the reader right in to the lives of the family and the farm – where a seemingly free-range flock of children is raised alongside the free-range flocks of sheep.

In many ways portraying a rural idyll, the book never-the-less leaves the reader in no doubt that Amanda and Clive are both extraordinarily determined, hard-working and passionate about their family, their animals and their way of life.

Highly recommended as a heart-warming, funny and relaxing read.

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