If I have one dish just before I drop dead it would be lemon surprise pudding. A Delia recipe originally, I believe. Ein bekanntes Muster dieser Kultur: Frau wünscht sich als Lebensziel Kinder, Ehemann, Haus, erwartet aber, dass dieser Ehemann für die Kosten aufkommt ("Ich bekomme doch nicht Kinder, damit jemand anders sie aufzieht." taucht wörtlich mehrfach im Buch auf - das habe ich nicht nur von einer Frau auch in Echt gehört und mich jedesmal gefragt: "Aber der Vater schon?"). In diesem Fall umfasst das vom Ehemann zu finanzierende Lebensziel auch innerhalb weniger Jahre immer wieder neue Häuser samt komplettem Umbau und teurer Einrichtung. Rebanks berichtet von regelmäßigem Streit mit ihrem Mann ums Geld.

Lovely. . . the book equivalent of getting up before everyone else to enjoy the silence of the day.' Helen’s book reminds us that dreams need to be striven for. Everything about making their barn happen has been a challenge to the Rebankses and it was, they now believe, Helen’s spontaneously eloquent speech to the planning board that eventually got them the go-ahead. Access to good healthy food is, for me, a basic human right. But it isn’t solved by making farming worse in a race to the bottom. When I was growing up, mealtimes anchored the days. With very little experience, Mum had to find her way around managing this big farmhouse and doing all the jobs, mostly by herself. There was no money to pay a maid to live in the attic, like there had been in Grandma’s day.

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A few years later, Grandma only came on Fridays, when she came to get her hair done by Mum. As Grandma leaned over the kitchen sink with a towel around her shoulders, Mum would pour jugs of water over her head from a basin and rub shampoo into her grey curly hair. It's quite an achievement to portray the quiet power behind the choices we make for our children - be it the food on the table or the life we choose to live. And to shine a light of truth on the often idealised, always understated, role of the farmer's wife.' Raynor Winn

James has just pulled into the driveway. ‘Can you come and give me a hand tagging lambs?’ he shouts. ‘It won’t take long, there’s not many in this batch.’ Any excuse to avoid the paperwork, I think, and I push it to one side.Pairing this book with her husband’s ‘the shepherds life’ would lead to a better bigger picture, but also an interesting study in how this husband and wife team (perhaps, most men and women) have their focus on different things, even as they do their lives together. In this honest and tender memoir, Helen invites us into her life and home with rare openness and warmth – inside, we find a loving place, sometimes conflicted, often chaotic, and always buzzing with life.' Helen Jukes, author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings