The Lambing Season

Stories of Life on an Irish Family Farm

John Connell

A hymn to the rituals of farming life from the bestselling Irish author of The Farmer's Son.

For John Connell, the lambing season on his County Longford farm begins in the autumn. In the sheep shed, he surveys the dozen females in his care and contemplates the work ahead as the season slowly turns to winter, then spring.

The twelve sheep have come into his life at just the right moment. After years of hard work, John felt a deep tiredness creeping up on him, a sadness that he couldn't shrug off. Having always sought spiritual guidance, he comes to realize that, in addition to the soothing words of literature and philosophy, perhaps the way ahead involves this simple flock of sheep. In the hard work of livestock rearing, in the long nights in the shed helping the sheep to lamb, he can reflect on what life truly means.

Like the flock that he shepherds, this book is both simple and profound, a meditation on the rituals of farming life and a primer on the lessons that nature can teach us. As spring returns and the sheep and their lambs are released into the fields, skipping with joy, John recalls the words of Henry David Thoreau, reminding us to "live in each season as it passes."

John Connell is a multi-award-winning author, film producer, investigative journalist and farmer. His documentary programs have won over a dozen international awards. His memoir The Farmer's Son (The Cow Book) was awarded Popular Non Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. He lives in County Longford.

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Endorsements & Reviews

“Connell gives a deeply personal account of taking care of sheep on his County Longford farm in Ireland. Through the seasons, he learns lessons from the farm, family, and himself. By lambing season, he feels like a changed man. His journey is complete with new lambs to take care of and some loss to struggle with, and he ultimately discovers that love has been carrying him through all of this: the love found in nature and caring for it. This is a poetic meditation on what nature can teach us. An excellent choice for those who love James Herriot’s All Creatures Great & Small.” Booklist

“A small gem, full of quiet wisdom and gorgeous descriptions of the wonder of nature, the redemption it holds, and how the landscape is charged with meaning. It’s been a long time since I read such a positive book.” The Independent (UK)

“An enjoyable, thoughtful and thought-provoking book, where the author skillfully and honestly outlines his life’s journey for the reader. Like Pirsig who found his zen in motorcycle maintenance, Connell has found his in his sheep.” The Irish Examiner

“Connell brings us on the journey that leads him back to vitality and purpose, with the characteristic depth of a writer making his mark in the genre of spiritual nature writing. Connell carries forward the lamp of the late great Irish poet-philosopher, John O’Donoghue, and keeps alive the flame of the bardic tradition in Irish literature. Connell artfully weaves a tapestry that traverses time and space.” The Irish Times

"The Lambing Season is what I call a real book, an honest book. I can hear John Connell's voice lilting off the page, and telling me the many truths he has discovered: truths I need to know, and everyone needs to know." Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows

"A beautiful and soothing book, at once far-reaching and intimate, it serves as a sublime exhortation to stop and savour our precious and fleeting time on earth, to be grateful for the life we're given."
Donal Ryan, author of The Queen of Dirt Island and The Spinning Heart

"This is such a lovely book, beautifully constructed and crafted. As everyone knows who has enjoyed The Farmer's Son, John Connell writes like a dream. In The Lambing Season, he returns to the old family farm in Longford, and the contours of a landscape both starkly real and richly imagined, to quarry that inexhaustible seam, the simple yet profound life lessons that come from farming. This is a wise and humane book, a book to lift our spirits." Michael Wood, author of The Story of China and In Search of the Dark Ages

Praise for The Farmer's Son

"A vivid and sharply observed account of a way of life which is almost invisible, a new hidden Ireland. It is also a fascinating portrait of a single sensibility, a born noticer, someone on whom nothing is lost, observing birth and death, the landscape and his own heritage." Colm Tóibín

"A gorgeous read, full of warmth, truth and tentative wonder. John Connell has written 'an elegy to the nature I know', but this book is an elegy to so much more—to art and myth and sorrow and longing." Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither