English Pastoral

James Rebanks’s English Pastoral is a beautifully written memoir of farming, landscape, and the transformation of rural Britain. Rebanks traces his family’s generational connection to the land while examining how industrial agriculture reshaped the countryside. His writing is lyrical yet grounded, capturing both the physical labour of farming and the policy decisions that affect rural life. The book is a call for more sustainable, attentive forms of stewardship — politically informed but deeply personal. Rebanks’s reflections on ecology, heritage, and responsibility resonate far beyond the farming community. It is tender, evocative, and politically powerful in its quiet way.