Mad Shepherds by LP Jacks

The philosopher and writer L. P. Jacks moved to live in the Vale of Evesham in the northern Cotswolds at the end of the nineteenth century, where he struck up an unlikely friendship with Robert Dellanow, the shepherd at Upper Farm, who was known locally as Snarley Bob. Out of their conversations grew Mad Shepherds, a series of philosophical dialogues in which Snarley Bob’s sceptical, gruff and often rude outpourings conceal a wit and intelligence that offer acute reflections on religion, morality and education set against the rhythms and observations of rural life.

Along with memorable portraits of other people in the village community, including Mrs Abel (the Rector’s wife) and Tom Hankin (the shoemaker), Mad Shepherds is an utterly unique, compulsively readable and strange book about an England now entirely lost and largely forgotten. This edition includes illustrations from the first edition and a new introduction by Mackenzie Crook.