The Farmer's Wife

Helen Rebanks

From Shelf: Official Indie Non-Fiction Bestsellers (week 10, 2024)

A gorgeous portrait of life at Helen Rebanks' Lake District farmhouse as well as a heartfelt and honest delve into the truth about the grind and the glory of keeping a home and raising a family today.

'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 WINNThis 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 RISBRIDGERReaders 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.'