"The Shepherd's Life" is a beautiful combination of unpretentious description, cultural history, and the odd flight of poetic appreciation. Reading it, I came to love the shepherd's family and the landscape they have inhabited for generations. His connection to the world outside the fells, as well as a sympathetic understanding of the history of conservationism, make it possible for him to show modern urban readers a way of life they might never have imagined continuing in the present day.