The Wisdom of Sheep

“[Rosamund Young] conveys expertise and passion for farming, and shares her delight in nature’s abundance . . . Young’s unfailing belief that no animal should suffer infuses the book with compassion and grace.” —The Washington Post

“This is Young’s follow-up to The Secret Life of Cows, a second series of vignettes about her life at the impossibly bucolic Kite’s Nest Farm, in the Cotswolds . . . I thoroughly enjoy reading about daily farm events. They enter the bloodstream like benzodiazepines . . . Young’s anecdotes entrance you within seconds; you can use them compulsively to self-soothe, and you can skip around with no fear of missing the good parts . . . I turned to Young: dozens of pages of gamboling lambs, bees buzzing around fence posts. ‘The sheep walk towards some people,’ she writes, and they believe in predestination. ‘You are either one of the chosen or you are not.’ I want to be among the elect.” —Harper’s

“Evocative . . . As Young, the author of The Secret Life of Cows, recounts, farming and a love of farm animals are in her blood . . . she decided to keep a journal about the ‘daily farm events’ at the heart of the stories in this volume . . . the pieces are united by the undivided, always affectionate attention Young gives to her world . . . Nature and its simple joys reign supreme throughout this charming text. Warmhearted and charming, Young’s essays offer a gentle country antidote to the tumult of contemporary life. A delightful modern-day pastoral.” —Kirkus

“Elegiac, funny, warm and wise, The Wisdom of Sheep will delight country folk and city dwellers alike.” —Katherine May, author of Enchantment

“Rosamund Young has been shovelling muck since she was a child, always carries a penknife and can be found delivering hay in the “stolen hours after midnight” . . . The joy of Young’s writing is in her observations . . . The Wisdom of Sheep is a pastoral. It is a testament to the power of slow observation, and that’s a lesson for us all.” —Helen Davies, Sunday Times

“Made up of short chapters on aspects of farm life, from the sheep and cows to the abundant wildlife, this is a delightful book. . . One thing is certain: after reading this book, you will look at sheep in a different way.” —Daily Mail

“A wonderful antidote to the hectic pace of modern life . . . there’s gentle humour, stoicism and countryside wisdom to be found on every page. Rosamund writes with an easy skill, and the short anecdotal nature of the book can be quite addictive . . . Packed full of delightful conversation.” —James Oswald

“Kite’s Nest in the Cotswolds is a family farm whose definition of family is wide: included are a host of inquisitive and characterful animals . . . The book is a collection of scribbled diary entries, memoir, and poems – Young’s own, as well as others from popular literature. Young’s love of her profession and the creatures who depend on it is unmistakable.” —New Statesman

“Rosamund Young continues to spread a little bit of magic, courtesy of her organic farm, menagerie of livestock and supporting cast off flora and fauna . . . An uplifting read.” —Countryfile

“Sheep are good judges of character and they have long memories . . . A meadow is made up of many parts, ‘whose heart you can hear only when you become part of it too’ . . . Never mind the wisdom of sheep, these are only a few of the many droplets of lore from organic farmer Rosamund Young . . . A series of gentle, sometimes random, musings. Soothing.” —Country Life

“Young’s work is infused with poetry and literary illusions . . . [and] is down to earth, in every sense, as you might expect from someone who believes that “grass is the answer to everything” . . . Written in short, episodic chapters, which are more like diary entries, this is a thoughtful [and] pleasing book . . . every page is tethered to Young’s experiences with animals and her love for them . . . The Wisdom of Sheep is both beguiling and compulsive. The product of decades of hard work, it is filtered through a shrewd but generous perspective on the world, and how to make it a better place.” —Rosemary Goring, Herald

“If you’ve read Rosamund Young’s charming anecdotal book The Secret Life of Cows about growing up on a Cotswold farm, then you simply have to read this . . . a joy to read.” —Cotswold Life

“A gorgeous book . . . Conversational in style, Rosamund’s narrative leads you through meadows abloom with wildflowers . . . to a bird-table crowded with great spotted woodpeckers, dunnocks, tits and goldfinches, plus observations from frosty and snowy pastures when winter arrives.” —The Simple Things

“As a follow up of sorts to Rosamund Young’s surprise 2018 hit The Secret Life of Cows, The Wisdom of Sheep applies the same intimate perspective to the ways of sheep . . . From Kite’s Nest Farm, her small organic agricultural base in the Cotswolds, she reports back on the activities of the livestock, including sheep which it has taken her “more than half a century” to get round to keeping.” —Strong Words