James Rebanks, Shepherd and Writer

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

James Rebanks is a shepherd and the best-selling author of The Shepherd’s Life. Born in Cumbria in 1974, he grew up venerating his grandfather, who taught him what he needed to know in order to take over the family farm from his father one day. He found school an irksome distraction, and left aged 15 with two GCSEs. It wasn’t until his early 20s, after he’d developed an interest in reading and had met his future wife Helen, that he decided to return to study at a local college in the evenings. Encouraged by a tutor, he applied for a place at Oxford University, and graduated with a double first in History. After university, he worked in a number of white-collar jobs, in order to boost his income while ensuring he could continue to work on the farm. He breeds two different types of sheep: Herdwicks, which are a native breed to his part of the world, and Swaledales, which he kept out of respect to his father who died in 2015, just before the publication of James’s first book. He began chronicling his life as a shepherd on Twitter in 2012 but is currently taking a break from tweeting. He and Helen have four children. BOOK CHOICE: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway LUXURY: Pen and Paper CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: A New England by Kirsty MacColl Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:05.0	I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Discs podcast.
0:08.3	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take
0:13.0	with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.3	This is an extended version of the original Radio 4 broadcast and for right reasons the
0:21.4	music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:24.4	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.0	Music Music
0:46.4	My cast away today is the Shepherd and writer James Rebanks.
0:50.4	His family have been farming in the Cumbrian Fells for over 600 years and he's firmly
0:55.1	rooted in the land.
0:56.4	His skills and knowledge have been passed down through the generations and the farming
1:00.3	life began early for him.
1:02.1	As a toddler he rode on the back of his grandfather's tractor and as he grew he'd increasingly
1:06.6	help out with the daily tasks of clipping, dipping, feeding and mucking out.
1:11.2	His other career as a best-selling author was inspired by his discovery of social media.
1:16.4	Tweeting pictures of his beloved herdwick sheep and his jeep dogs brought him to the
1:20.2	attention of publishers.
1:21.7	The shepherd's life was a huge success and brought the reality of life on the hills
1:26.2	to townies across the world.
1:28.2	He says, I have always liked the feeling of carrying on something bigger than me, something
1:32.6	that stretches back through other hands and other eyes into the depths of time.
	...

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