A Shepherd's Life: impressions of the South Wiltshire downs (Aziloth Books)

Born in Argentina in 1841, William Henry Hudson grew up in that boisterous, lawless land of wild animals and even wilder desperados. He wrote about both, from recondite papers in 'Proc'eedings of the Zoological Society of London' to best selling novels including Green Mansions' and 'The Purple Land'. Argentina claimed him for her own and, even today, there are streets and towns named in honour of Guillermo Enrique Hudson. But he was strangely discontented with his native land, and by 1870 Hudson had moved to England, settling in Wiltshire where he enjoyed a peripatetic existence, wandering the lanes and by-ways of that fair county, studying its wildlife and gleaning a wealth of antique lore and traditions from its inhabitants. 'A Shepherd's Life' is the fascinating distillation of this labour of love. Hudson's beautiful, evocative prose brings this forgotten time once more to life, leading the reader through forest and downland, meeting farmer, shepherd and gypsy, each living close to the earth, and each with their own store of wisdom to impart. The pages of 'A Shepherd's Life' are crammed with tales of family feuds, deer poaching and battles with game keepers, and peppered throughout with startling stories of animal behavior: from a sheep dog that suckled lambs through whistling hedgehogs to fox cubs that played happily with young rabbits. A book for all who love tales of lives lived in harmony with Nature and the environment.