The Wisdom of Sheep and other Animals by Rosamund Young

  

The Wisdom of Sheep and other animals

by Rosamund Young

first published 2023

This is a book of anecdotes about farm animals written by someone who has lived with them all her life.

The first story tells is of the winter of 1947, not something she lived through, but her grandparents and tells how the snow was so deep they had to dig a tunnel through the snow to the barn. It put me in mind of something my Mother told me, about a really bad winter in Kentmere where her father dug a tunnel through the snow to the village. Mum said that the snow came up the the upstairs windows and the house was a lot warmer, till the snow melted.

A lot of the time sheep are just white blobs wandering across the hills, but not in this book, here the sheep are individuals, as are the cows. In many ways, the animals are the ones in control with the people being blessed to share their lives.

The stories are full of humour and love, written from a lifetime of observation. I thought it was a book I could put down and pick up when I had the odd minute, but I found that I kept wanting to read one more story and another after that and it was disappointing when I got to the end of the book.

The author has written another book, “The Secret Life of Cows”.

Book review of "The Names"

The Names

by Florence Knapp 2025

There are times in life that are cross-road moments, the choice you make changes things and sets the course of your life. In “The Names” that moment is when Cora registers the birth of her son, the name she chooses and the reactions to it.

Bear – her daughter’s choice of name, because she sees him as a teddy bear, soft and cuddly, but will defend anyone.

Julian – her choice of name, meaning sky father

Gordon – her husbands name, his family have a tradition of naming the first son after the father and he was keen to follow the family tradition. He also wanted the birth to be registered before his parents came to see their grandson.

She knows there will be consequences whichever name she chooses. The book looks at the three choices and what happens at the time, following every seven years with an incident in the lives of the three different names of the son and the people in his life.

It is an interesting book, showing the difference a name can make to someone and how it affects the people in their life.

With Julian, the children are living with their maternal grandmother at the first seven year update. Cora has died, but there is no indication of how or why or even how they ended up with their maternal grandmother and not their father.

With all of them, there is the question of why the father didn’t accompany his wife to register the birth, then again there would be no story if he had, but all in all, it reads well and keeps the readers interest, though I wish she hadn’t killed Bear off.