Have a great 2026.

Thank you

26 books finished this year, which is not a bad score at all.

Book of the Year has to be this one - The Place of Tides by @herdyshepherd.bsky.social

Honourable mentions go to The Bone Ships by @rjbarker.bsky.social and The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. Any other year they would have won.

Thank you to everyone who has bought this book.

Thrilled it has become a bestseller and found so much love.

Take care folks.

New ‘Maximus’ bull arrived today

Radical with Amol Rajan - Beyond Ultra-Processed Foods: Can Farmers Fix Our Health and the Planet? (James Rebanks) - BBC Sounds James Rebanks on how to build a secure, sustainable and healthy food system.

This long interview on the state of farming and our food system with @herdyshepherd.bsky.social is really interesting. The bit from about 45 minutes in especially so.

Just finished reading @herdyshepherd.bsky.social "The Place of Tides". A beautiful book, but now sat watching the rain streaming down the window as tears stream down my face asking myself if I'm making any kind of positive difference to the world, however small.

I’m sure you are… and we can only try.

But I’m very touched that you were so affected by it.

Radical with Amol Rajan - Beyond Ultra-Processed Foods: Can Farmers Fix Our Health and the Planet? (James Rebanks) - BBC Sounds James Rebanks on how to build a secure, sustainable and healthy food system.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... this wide-ranging conversation is oh so good. Rebanks @herdyshepherd.bsky.social is able with great, grounded eloquence to say it as it is. If You think #wendellberry is good - listen to this. Not sure about everything in Rajan’s concluding summary but generally good.

🌱Great to hear two of our major reports spotlighted by James Rebanks @herdyshepherd.bsky.social on BBC Sounds: Radical with Amol Rajan.

👉Full episode: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Read the reports:
➡️'Farming for Change' ffcc.co.uk/publications...

➡️‘Paying the Price’ ffcc.co.uk/publications...

One of the things people don’t realise is that only about 15% (at most) of food price paid at the till goes to the farmer in the most ‘advanced’ versions of this food system

There is some evidence that on average farmers actually subsidise such system with their free or sub cost labour

“92% of [UK] farmers think the greatest threat to the long-term growth of British farming is the government.” While farmers go bankrupt, “Food prices have risen by around 37% in the last five years.” Who is this serving? Without small farmers, we have no food, no nature & environment, no security.

There isn’t a trade off - really - depends on a lot of nuances and how habitat restoration we can do round regen grazing

‘Did’ this

Labour is crushing Britain's farmers

And this…

unherd.com/2025/11/coul...

I’d do this…

www.bbc.com/audio/play/m...

Just finished reading English Pastoral by @herdyshepherd.bsky.social

An absolute must read for anyone managing land or involved in ecology in the UK. I was blown away by the honesty & pragmatism in this book.

#booksky

1/3

Little Atoms 974 - James Rebanks' The Place of Tides | Little Atoms

On today's new Little Atoms podcast, James Rebanks (@herdyshepherd.bsky.social) on his latest book The Place of Tides, out now in paperback from @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or here:

shows.acast.com/b5fe8d16-751...

Another beautifully written book by @herdyshepherd.bsky.social. A great relief from all the trumpishness, and a joy to read.

So, this happened… thanks to @waterstones.bsky.social

Finished... like all the best non-fiction, it's about so much more than its subject - it's made me think about legacy, loss and resilience and how individuals can make a difference to the world.

A wonderful book... even though it put a little dust in my eye...

Thank you @herdyshepherd.bsky.social

Cover of The Place of Tides by James Rebanks.

The Place of Tides by @herdyshepherd.bsky.social

It's marvellous.

Just one more calf due this year

No I call it that

No one here calls it ‘baler twine’

Devastated

Birthday on the boat this morning and very pleased with my present from Liz.

@herdyshepherd.bsky.social

This is a truly life-affirming book by @herdyshepherd.bsky.social

Read it and you’ll discover a remarkable culture, a remarkable place and most of all a remarkable person.

The second of the short animations made by the amazing Gabriella Marsh for The Place of Tides, with excerpts read by the equally amazing (!) author, James Rebanks.

@herdyshepherd.bsky.social will be with us at Stroud’s Sub Rooms on 18th September.

Info and tickets here: ylbevent.link/rebanks.

‘The island was waiting for us to leave… and now I was ready to go home again. Like Anna I had a place to care for, and it was time to go back and do that’

@herdyshepherd.bsky.social will be in Stroud next month. Thanks to Gabriella Marsh.

Info and tickets here: ylbevent.link/rebanks.