A really lovely book. A very committed environmentalist trying to keep the traditional ways going. Having lived in Dumfries and Galloway for seven years it was a trip down memory lane, knowing of and having visited most of the locations mentioned. Shame the curlews have been lost but hopefully they are breeding well elsewhere.

I bought this book thinking it was about nature, not realising it was about a beef farmer. Talk about being detached from reality! In the last pages he talks about how the cows know the sound of his voice and how they trust him, how they run alongside his quad bike with excitement.... as the approaching cattle truck pulls up ready to take them to slaughter! He calls them 'heavy masses of living meat' and how they are 'fat and valuable.' The tears he sheds at that moment are not ones of sadness for their impending doom, but rather how happy he is with what he has achieved for the sale of their flesh: money. Unbelievable.