The farmer’s wife

£10.99

As dawn breaks on the farm, Helen Rebanks makes a mug of tea, relishing the few minutes of quiet before the house stirs. Within the hour the sounds of her husband, James, and their four children will fill the kitchen. There are also six sheepdogs, two ponies, 20 chickens, 50 cattle and 500 sheep to care for. Helen is a farmer’s wife. Hers is a story that is rarely told, despite being one we think we know. Weaving past and present, Helen shares the days that have shaped her. This is the truth of those days: from steering the family through the Beast from the East and the local authority planning committee, to finding the quiet strength to keep going, when supper is yet to be started, another delivery man has assumed he needs to speak to the ‘man of the house’, and she would rather punch a cushion than plump it.

In stock

SKU: 9780571370597 Category: Tags: ,

Description

‘Beautiful.’ Daily Mail
‘True, unflinching, powerful, lyrical’ Kate Mosse
‘Wonderful, inviting, wholesome.’ Observer
‘Beautiful and very honest.’ CAITLIN MORAN

‘It’s quite an achievement to shine a light of truth on the often idealised, always understated, role of the farmer’s wife.’ RAYNOR WINN

This honest and heartwarming memoir offers a portrait of the labour and glory of keeping a home and raising a family. Weaving past and present, Helen Rebanks shares her highs and lows, from the emotional journey to the birth of her first child, and the endless improvisation of each night’s dinner, to the dog gobbling up her daughter’s freshly-made birthday cake. These are days that have shaped her, and the ways she finds the quiet strength to keep going.

‘In its own quiet way, [The Farmer’s Wife] is a manifesto: every woman has the right to choose the life they want.’ Mail on Sunday

‘Very moving, real and true.’ AMY LIPTROT
‘Enchanting, funny, fearless. . . a luminously beautiful memoir.’ Spectator
‘Authentic and affecting.’ SARAH LANGFORD
‘Lovely, warm and real, it made me cry and cook and think. ‘ ELLA RISBRIDGER

Readers love The Farmer’s Wife

‘Lovely. . . the book equivalent of getting up before everyone else to enjoy the silence of the day.’
An absorbing , often magical book
‘A beautifully written manifesto for the life she’s chosen to lead’
‘A beacon of light. . . I’ve never read a memoir quite like this.’

Additional information

Weight 316 g
Dimensions 20 × 13 × 2.5 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

368

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

630.92 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

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