This is one of the best books I have read for a long time. It is a compelling read and I struggled to tear myself away from it. I felt that I was with the author during her experiences on the various farms that she worked on. She comes across as a very confident lady who had dreams she was determined to fulfil. I loved the way she could enjoy and celebrate the beauty of the nature surrounding her. Her strength of character and determination shines through. I wish there had been more to read!

I have a soft spot for passionate autobiographies of regular people and The Sheep Stell fixes that craving incredibly. Janet White tells the story of her life as a shepherdess, from her childhood longing to work on a farm, taking us across Scotland, Wales, New Zealand . . . all over the world! The description is divine, some of the most evocative writing I've ever come across, with stunning imagery of Scottish landscapes and New Zealand islands, and the trials and tribulations of life as a farmer. This is what I'd describe as a perfect Sunday read: a gentle true tale with a gorgeous cover, a riveting narrative and lyrical writing that lingers! I absolutely adored this book: I could keep reading White's words for a long time, simple and beautiful.

The Sheep Stell, Memoirs of a Shepherd by Janet White. Little, Brown Book Group UK. Constable. Outdoors & Nature. Pub Date 15 Mar 2018.

The romance of language meeting nature. Delightful, amazing, this adventurous memoir is an enjoyable must-read for people who love sheep and travel! It’s worth packing your bags if you can find an experience like that today. This book covers places in Wales, Scotland, New Zealand, and places in England like Somerset County. The Sheep Stell was first published more than 25 years ago and this is an updated edition. This is the best book I’ve read so far this year. Simply superb. 

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ebook for review.

This book is the story of a remarkable woman's life. Janet White is someone who, in the era concerned, had little regard for norms I think. It opens with a chapter wonderfully evocative of an English countryside which has disappeared. It is the mid 1940s in the Cotswolds. Janet's ideal is to work on a farm with animals. In that she proves very successful over her whole life and journeys far in doing so. She also seeks isolation and wilderness for a preference - she succeeds in that for much of her life too.

After learning her craft in fairly remote parts of the UK, Janet decides it's time for a change and takes an emigrant passage to New Zealand. Bearing in mind she is on her own and this is still the 1950s I find her behaviour unusual to say the least. Throughout the Sheep Stell she comes over as someone who simply cannot see that something might not be possible. After doing the relatively mundane job she signed up to she finds an isolated island and persuades the owner that she can run the island and have her own livestock on there and manage on her own!

I found charm and simplicity to the writing and, for much of the book, a real feel of a time now long passed. She writes in a very open way about her life and feelings even if animals and the landscapes dominate the story. She is an acute observer of all that interests her with remarkably vivid memories of long ago events.

In a sense this is a good book for "romantics" - she is someone who seems to gather male attention around her like moths to a light. However more broadly this does have a rather romantic feel to it coming from a slightly different era in relatively recent time. Early on I was left with the feeling that this is a remarkable story told by a very good writer. It is not earth shattering or momentous but it holds great qualities. That feeling never really went away. I do probably have a slight preference for the first half of the Sheep Stell. It is wilder and more interesting to me. The second half was far more "domesticated" in a number of senses and, while good, was a little less appealing. 4.5/5 I think and happily recommended to anyone it appeals to.

Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review

This is a beautifully written memoir and one that will stay with me for a long time. The book follows Janet White's journey from her origins, growing up on a farm in the Cotswolds to her first independant steps as a shepherdess in the Cheviots, then onwards to a tiny, isolated island off the coast of New Zealand. This is all the more inspiring when you understand that this occurred in the 1950s, when a woman's place was considered to be in the home, baking bread and producing children. Instead Janet was alone, in a country as far from home as she could possibly be, battling sexism and randy farmers, all the while trying to tend her flock and revelling in the peace that her deliberate isolation brought.
Her writing is stunning, and her enthusiasm and passion for her vocation is supremely evident. I'll be honest and say that I chose to read this book purely based on its gorgeous front cover but I am so glad I did. I adored every single minute of this read and it is one I can wholeheartedly recommend.