The Wisdom of Sheep: Observations from a Family Farm

We often either assume animals are stupid or we choose to anthropomorphise their behaviour. Here Young takes the reader through anecdotes about her organic farm which show that our farm animals have complex hierarchies and relationships plus the ability to empathise and communicate with humans. It's a lovely short read which is as much a love story about farming as it is a memoir and an animal psychiatry primer.

she is a gifted writer as well as farmer - enchanting to share her delight at wildflowers and gamboling sheep

2.25 stars

The author runs an organic farm. These are little anecdotes.

The book started well – a bit of her biography/background. But then it got into chapters of (sometimes odd, in my opinion) anecdotes. Some chapters were just a poem or a quote from literature; some were about other critters (not sheep) such as frogs, insects, butterflies, birds. Many chapters (maybe more than the ones about sheep?) were about cows. (Some of) the chapters on cows and sheep were the most interesting to me, but often she’d also throw in more literary references and other things that just were odd to me. There were some nice little illustrations and it was a very fast read.

If you are a fan of Our Yorkshire Farm then you will like this book. Written in a theme page format it drifts across the seasons on a sheep farm in the Cotswolds. It really has no logical sequence but can be dipped in and out at will (chapters are short). I am ambivalent about it but as I say if you like this kind of book it is for you, however its not Gavin Maxwell...