The point of being in a book group is to read things you normally wouldn't look at twice, and this is a perfect example.
In this book James Rebanks tells us about his childhood on a small Cumbrian farm, and how he fell in love with farming. He also tells us about how farming changed and industrialised over the decades and details exactly what the reasons are that this is not a good thing.
He finishes the book with glimmers of hope that the damage that's been done could be reversed with the right impetus.
It's a book of three parts. Part one is his childhood memories as a 10 year old working the farm with his grandfather. This part I found to be exceedingly dull unfortunately. He's trying to be poetic and paint pictures with his words, but it doesn't quite work and comes off as a try hard attempt.
The second part follows the changes in the literal farming landscape that happened between the 60s and 90s, and lays out in clear, uncomplicated terms exactly how much damage industrial farming has done. This part develops an urgency and drops the overly flowery prose that slowed part one down to the dullness that it was.
Part three comes right up to date and Rebanks explains how he is working to improve the landscape and the soil with traditional methods. He offers glimmers of hope that I mentioned earlier. The urgency recedes from part two but fortunately it doesn't turn quite as flowery and purple as part one.
It's a bit of a curates egg. I found it compulsive after the dull opening section. It opened my eyes to the damage that industrial farming for profit is doing to the land. Whether his measures will help, and his methods will spread is yet to be seen. But we can hope.
An important, if not always interesting book.
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