©Sophie Davidson
Books by James Rebanks
James Rebanks is a farmer based in the Lake District, England, where his family have lived and worked for over six hundred years. His no.1 bestselling debut, The Shepherd’s Life, won the Lake District Book of the Year, was shortlisted for the Wainwright and Ondaatje prizes, and has been translated into sixteen languages. His second book, English Pastoral, was also a top ten bestseller and was named the Sunday Times Nature Book of the Year.
“I enjoyed this a lot. The author travels to a remote Norwegian archipelago to document the life of a woman called Anna, a mature lady who is upholding an ancient tradition of caring for eider ducks—making little houses for them as nesting sites—so as to gather the down they leave scattered there. It’s in order to make eiderdown quilts. In a way, it’s an anthropological examination of that way of life, but it’s also a kind of fable. It’s a tribute to the small act of resilience, the heroism of people working in their own communities and landscapes.” Read more...
Tom Parfitt, Journalist
“It’s a lyrical account of his childhood on the Lake District farm that he’s made famous; an account of how he learned about stockmanship and community and the rhythms of the land from his father and grandfather.” Read more...
Charles Foster, Medical Scientist
Interviews with James Rebanks
Modern Classics, recommended by James Rebanks
It’s notoriously difficult to recognise great works of literature at the time of publication, but certain books come to the fore as ‘modern classics’: exceptional texts that will stand the test of time. We asked James Rebanks, the Lake District shepherd and celebrated author, to recommend five books that deserve the label.
Interviews where books by James Rebanks were recommended
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1
Wild Child: Coming Home to Nature
by Patrick Barkham -
2
English Pastoral: An Inheritance
by James Rebanks -
3
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
by Merlin Sheldrake -
4
The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge
by Jeffrey J Kripal -
5
Vesper Flights
by Helen Macdonald (author and narrator)
The Best Nature Books of 2020, recommended by Charles Foster
The Best Nature Books of 2020, recommended by Charles Foster
Charles Foster—the barrister, ethicist and bestselling author of Being a Beast—selects five brilliant nature books that reflect a new boom in nature writing in 2020, many of which ask us to examine more closely the interconnectedness of all things.
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1
Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans in China
by Noo Saro-Wiwa -
2
On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar
by Clare Hammond -
3
Slow Trains to Istanbul: ...And Back: A 4,570-Mile Adventure on 55 Rides
by Tom Chesshyre -
4
The Place of Tides
by James Rebanks -
5
Wayfarer: Love, loss and life on Britain’s ancient paths
by Phoebe Smith -
6
Wild Twin
by Jeff Young
The Best Travel Books of 2025, recommended by Tom Parfitt
The Best Travel Books of 2025, recommended by Tom Parfitt
Every year, the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards highlight the very best of recently published place writing, and select their ‘travel book of the year.’ We asked judge Tom Parfitt, the author and former foreign correspondent, to talk us through the six travel books that made the 2025 shortlist.
