I’ve loved the
English Lake District since I was a child
reading the
Swallows and Amazons
series by Arthur Ransome. When I was sixteen I went on a hiking holiday there
with three friends. We stayed in Youth Hostels including
Black Sail, the most
remote in England. We hiked the fells with the help of our Cumbria
Ordnance Survey map and climbed to the top of
Helvellyn with its glorious views of the
vales and lakes. I longed to go back and many years later I did when my
children were teenagers. It was a memorable trip in a different way. My
daughter put fashion before practicality and insisted on wearing sneakers
without laces instead of hiking boots. Slipping and sliding on sheep droppings
on the steep fells soon made her regret her decision. Meanwhile, as my husband
and son disappeared over a ridge to see a
tarn, a thick mist swept over the
fells. Only I knew how dangerous was their situation. Every summer, when
inexperienced tourists swarm the fells, there are numerous incidents of
helicopter rescues. This time we were lucky and made our way safely down into
the valley.
The Lake District I loved was the romantic landscape of
Wordsworth’s verse, of
Constable’s paintings, of
Beatrix Potter, of
Wainwright’s fell walking guides. The sheep dotting the fells were just another
appealing part of the rustic scenery. But in a wonderful new book,
The Shepherd’s Life by
James Rebanks, I learned that the real Lake District belongs to the working
farmers who follow an ancient way of life little changed for thousands of
years. The sheep on the fells don’t just make the scenery pretty, they
represent centuries of careful breeding and backbreaking hard work. The book
follows the seasons of the sheep farmer’s year interspersed with autobiography.
I highly recommend it whether you are interested in sheep or not. For if you
think sheep all look alike and that sheep farming doesn’t take much
intelligence, you will learn otherwise.
Rebanks tells of his anger when he finds out in school that
poets and painters and hikers think they own the place that is his family
heritage. His is an amazing life story. He hates school, preferring to work on
the farm amid his beloved sheep. He leaves school at 16 having failed all his
exams and becomes a full-time farmer alongside his father. But he discovers
books, becomes a voracious reader,
and eventually realizes the point of
education. If he wants the family farm to survive in the modern world, he must
find another source of income. Incredibly this self-educated farm boy, who
lists his occupation as stone wall builder, talks his way into Oxford
University. During most holidays he returns to work on the farm but, realizing
he needs some professional experience, he spends a summer working as an editor
in London. Here he finally realizes why city people idealize wild rural areas
like his home; the need to escape the suffocating city is overwhelming. So when
he graduates, Rebanks returns to run the family farm and develops a professional
career that fits in with his first love. He is now an expert advisor to UNESCO
on sustainable tourism policies that preserve traditional cultures.
Over the years I’ve visited the Lake District vicariously many
times through books, just as I did as a child. Here are a few of my favorites:
Part of the popular Inspector Lynley series, in this mystery
he heads to the Lake District to investigate the drowning of a member of a
prominent local family. Was it really an accident? George’s talent for
evocative descriptive writing is put to good use in this landscape.
When a tattooed body is found on the fells, a Lake District
legend about Fletcher Christian of the Bounty
and a lost Wordsworth poem is revived. Wordsworth scholar and Lake District native
Jane Gresham finds herself in danger as she tries to locate the missing
manuscript.
In the 1930’s, a Lake District community is threatened with
destruction by plans to flood the valley for a new reservoir serving industrial
cities in the midlands. Hall’s lyrical writing brings the wild beauty of the
Cumbrian landscape to life.
Titles in this series featuring Detective Chief Inspector
Hannah Scarlett and Oxford historian Daniel Kind, who retires to Tarn Cottage
in the Lake District, include The Cypher
Garden, The Serpent Pool and The Arsenic
Labyrinth.
That's all for now, baa baa.
R Tull
Labels: Books, Travel
The Lake District I loved was the romantic landscape of
Wordsworth’s verse, of Constable’s paintings, of Beatrix Potter, of
Wainwright’s fell walking guides. The sheep dotting the fells were just another
appealing part of the rustic scenery. But in a wonderful new book, The Shepherd’s Life by
James Rebanks, I learned that the real Lake District belongs to the working
farmers who follow an ancient way of life little changed for thousands of
years. The sheep on the fells don’t just make the scenery pretty, they
represent centuries of careful breeding and backbreaking hard work. The book
follows the seasons of the sheep farmer’s year interspersed with autobiography.
I highly recommend it whether you are interested in sheep or not. For if you
think sheep all look alike and that sheep farming doesn’t take much
intelligence, you will learn otherwise.
