Shepherd's Sight: A Farming Life

“A small masterpiece of the rural life.” — The Times Literary Supplement

A Globe 100 best book of 2024

“A joy to read. Compelling, wise, and deeply human.” — Helen Humphreys, author of Followed by the Lark

A restorative and resonant memoir of a year in the life of an aging shepherd

For 50 years, Barbara McLean has tended a flock of Border Leicester sheep on her small Ontario farm. Shepherd’s Sight shares the crises, pleasures, and challenges of farm life through the seasons. Now in her 70s, McLean faces a new problem: how much longer she can continue with the physically taxing work that is her central source of meaning and satisfaction.

Through her unsentimental gaze, we witness the highs and heartbreaks of delivering and rearing lambs, the shearing and spinning of wool, the wildlife in the woods (and occasionally in the house), and the garden produce moving from seed to harvest to table. Even after half a century on this land, McLean is still making fresh observations, and she shares them in evocative, elegant prose. As she moves through the calendar year, she also reflects on years past, offering a long view on climate, stewardship, and agriculture.

With its lyrical description and absorbing storytelling, Shepherd’s Sight offers an unforgettable glimpse of a life lived on the land.

Barbara McLean is the author of Lambsquarters: Scenes from a Handmade Life (2002). She lives in Grey County, Ontario.