Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
The Current

Thousands flock to Twitter to follow a shepherd in Lake District

He's got more than 60,000 twitter followers but the work he does depends less on technology and more on dogs. James Rebanks is a shepherd in the Lake District of northwest England. He's Oxford educated but realized early on that his attachment to his family's centuries old profession was his real intellectual calling.
CBC Radio ·
James Rebanks, author of 'The Shepherd's Life' says urbanites yearn for the connection to nature that was lost by progress. (James Rebanks)
The Current25:00Thousands flock to Twitter to follow a Shepherd in Lake District - June 4, 2015

William Wordsworth's poem, "Michael",  describes the Lake District, a small part of England's Northwest. And although those words were written more than two centuries ago... the Lake District Wordsworth describes, can still be glimpsed today.

Sheep and lambs still amble the hills and fields there...  and so do some shepherds. 

James Rebanks is one of of them. And he's written his own ode to the Lake District.. His book is titled, "The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape."  James Rebanks was in our Toronto studio.

Have a look at some pictures from James Rebanks' Twitter feed.



Do you dream of being a shepherd and getting away from modern life?

Tweet us @TheCurrentCBC. Find us on Facebook or as always email us from the website.

This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.
 

RELATED LINKS

James Rebanks, Twitter's favourite shepherd - The Guardian

A Day with the Tweeting Shepherd @herdyshepherd1 (video) - BBC News

More from this episode