James Rebanks

James Rebanks is a farmer and writer based in the Lake District, where his family have lived and worked for over six hundred years. His No.1 bestselling debut, The Shepherd’s Life (Allen Lane, 2015), won the Lake District Book of the Year, was shortlisted for the Wainwright and Ondaatje prizes, and has been translated into sixteen languages, and was described in the Independent as ‘an unforgettable book, one that raises important questions. It is also one of the most truthful descriptions of contemporary rural life that I have read’.

His second book, English Pastoral (Allen Lane, 2020), was also a Top Ten bestseller and was named the Sunday Times Nature Book of the Year. Heralded as a ‘masterpiece’ by the New Statesman, it won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing and was named Fortnum and Mason Food Book of the Year; it was also shortlisted for the Orwell and Ondaatje prizes, and longlisted for the Rathbones Folio award.

His latest book is The Place of Tides, already hailed by George Saunders as ‘Not only a modern classic, but one we very much need right now’, was published by Allen Lane in October 2024.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Heading