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The Sheep’s Tale
The Sheep’s Tale
Apr 28, 2025 2:50 PM

Author:John Lewis-Stempel

The Sheep’s Tale

'An important book on several levels... Read a few sentences out loud, wherever you are.' Rosamund Young

Everybody thinks they know what sheep are like: they're stupid, noisy, cowardly ('lambs to the slaughter'), and they're 'sheepwrecking' the environment.

Or maybe not. Contrary to popular prejudice, sheep are among the smartest animals in the farmyard, fiercely loyal, forming long and lasting friendships. Sheep, farmed properly, are boons to biodiversity. They also happen to taste good and their fleeces warm us through the winter - indeed, John Lewis-Stempel's family supplied the wool for Queen Elizabeth's 'hose'.

Observing the traditional shepherd's calendar, The Sheep's Tale is a loving biography of ewes, lambs, and rams through the seasons. Lewis-Stempel tends to his flock with deep-rooted wisdom, ethical consideration, affection, and humour. This book is a tribute to all the sheep he has reared and sheared - from gregarious Action Ram to sweet Maid Marion. In his inimitable style, he shares the tales that only a shepherd can tell.

Reviews

I found this book not only pleasingly escapist but also nostalgic... the writing is vivid, lyrical and seductive... There's a romance to shepherding that is entirely absent from pig and poultry farming.

—— The Times

The Sheep's Tale is an important book on several levels... Read a few sentences out loud, wherever you are; everyone should know more about sheep.

—— Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows

A book of brilliant authenticity. Lewis-Stempel's affection for, and empathy with, sheep springs off every page.

—— Sally Coulthard, author of A Short History of the World According to Sheep

John Lewis Stempel's paean of praise for our wonderful and unique breeds of British sheep ought to be widely read. Sheep and pastoral farming are coming under increasingly strident onslaught and they will need every ounce of support they can get if they are to survive into the future.

—— Philip Walling, author of Counting Sheep

This little book is both delightful and useful.

—— Country Life

An insider's account of the gentle art of shepherding.. . a paean to a lost era, when shepherds watched their flocks by night and regarded them with respectful understanding, rather than exploiting them as mere commodities... delivered with engaging wit... intelligently argued and full of surprising facts.

—— Herald

[Lewis-Stempel is] a superb nature writer... Anyone who tells you that these creatures are stupid is pulling the wool over your eyes.

—— Saga

A warm-hearted and deeply personal biography of ewes, rams and lambs... His affection for his flock shines through these shepherding tales.

—— The Countryman

In this provocative, utterly original work, Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China and bestselling author of AI Superpowers, teams up with celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan to imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In ten gripping short stories

—— Tor.com

AI 2041 builds a multilayered view of a future where artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies become embedded in our lives, for good or ill...Well-crafted . . . This book serves as an imaginative invitation to consider the potential for harm that may arise from [AI] projects, however unintended

—— Science

A magical book of wonderful stories about how farmers think and the challenges they face. It demonstrates that farmers across the country are passionate about producing food and caring for the land. A triumph

—— Jake Fiennes, author of Land Healer

Rooted is a brave thing: a book that prods into the ever-widening gulf between the binaries we increasingly use to examine the world. As conversations about what we eat and where it comes from reach fever-pitch, Sarah Langford's clear-eyed, inquisitive and passionate plea for farmers and farming offers a vital understanding when it has never been so needed. I hope everyone reads it.

—— Alice Vincent, author of Rootbound

An eloquent and personal insight into the terrible human as well as environmental cost of cheap food and an inspiring account of the people working to heal our relationship with our habitat and ourselves. Urgent, necessary and moving.

—— Ben Rawlence, author of The Treeline

A fine book: heartfelt, honest and hopeful. Sarah has the knowledge and skill to help people better understand where their food comes from and why we should all care.

—— Helen Rebanks

Moving, intimate, tender and searing, this is a gem of a book with deep roots and fresh green shoots.

—— Tamsin Calidas, author of I Am An Island

A timely and optimistic book, ostensibly about why we need farming to produce food, but more deeply about how farming is done, or could be done. Refreshingly authentic, Rooted gives us a hopeful sense of a regenerative future

—— Juliet Blaxland, author of The Easternmost House and The Easternmost Sky

Evocative and resonant. These are stories that need to be told.

—— Andy Cato, Groove Armada and Wildfarmed

Poetically written and filled with compelling data about modern-day farming

—— Vogue

Where Rooted ploughs its own shining furrow in its humanity ... but also the gathered, inspirational stories of farmers trying to do better and greener.

—— John Lewis-Stempel

[Silent Earth] should be obligatory reading for politicians and those in power... compelling... [Goulson] draws up his case in a very readable and accessible style... an essential and timely book.

—— John Green , Morning Star

After another frame-wrecking year I can think of no better book to recommend than Dave Goulson's Silent Earth

—— Times Literary Supplement, *Books of the Year*

Goulson's book deserves to be widely read. It is fact-filled and well balanced in the minefield of environmental politics.

—— International Journal of Environmental Studies

Challenging, but also funny and refreshingly low in sanctimony, this book is no frothing polemic. It will doubtless alter many readers' understanding of the systems we all participate in and lead them to make different choices. For others, it should prompt the difficult moral reasoning that those of us who love animals but also profit from their suffering cravenly manage to avoid... Mance is an amiable guide: curious and open-minded.

—— Melissa Harrison , Financial Times

Mance...is spot on to make us confront the horrible truth... [How to Love Animals] will force its readers to stop and think about the incomprehensible scale of unnecessary suffering we impose on our fellow creatures.

—— Julian Baggini , Literary Review
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