About this item
"No cow could ever hope for a better appreciation of its truly unique worth." - Betty Fussell, James Beard Award winner for Magazine Feature Writing and author of The Story of Corn and Raising SteaksSince highland cattle ransacked his grandmother's vegetable patch when he was six, Roger Morgan-Grenville has been fascinated by cows.So at the age of 61, with no farming experience, he signed on as a part- time laborer on a beef cattle farm to tell their side of the story. The result is this lyrical and evocative book.For 10,000 years, cow and human lives have been intertwined. Cattle have existed alongside us, fed and shod us, quenched our thirst, and provided a thousand other tiny services, and yet most of us know little about them. We are also blissfully unaware of the de-natured lives we often ask them to lead.
About the Author
In the stolen words of Tom Lehrer, by the age I published my first book, Mozart had been dead for twenty years. I'm not sure that any of this has been particularly deliberate, but I know that I love to write about conservation, relationships, strange situations and, above all, people. Our planet is bruised, but not irredeemably so. The way I look at it is that, if people like me tell stories that move people, even inspire them, they will want to get even more involved that they already might be. I started the latest run with bees (Liquid Gold 2020) , then seabirds (Shearwater: A Bird, an Ocean and a Long Way Home 2021) and next cattle.I write a regular blog (www.rogermg1.home.blog) which, although about many the inconsequential things that I observe on the surface, is really about the transition from company man to writing man, and from full time parent to empty nester. There is very little that I'm not prepared to award the 700 word treatment to.I very much hope you enjoy what I write, and am always pleased to hear comments back, especially constructive criticism. In a number of largely positive reviews of my first book, Not Out First Ball, my favourite still remains the one word, one star one that simply said 'Rubbish'. I was bowled over by the fact that he had bothered to commit pen to paper when I had wasted so much of his time already.Thank you.
