Faint Heart Never Kissed a Pig

Ann Drysdale left London and a failed marriage to make a life for herself and her three children in the North York Moors. Her efforts to raise a variety of small livestock result in weekly columns for the newspaper. These columns became this book. Nurturing orphan lambs, trying to milk a goat for the first time, and protecting her ducklings from the local fox give a wry look at making a living on a small farm. The reader can celebrate her successes as she describes the birth of the piglets and sympathize with her frustration as weather, inexperience and other factors complicate her life. If you like animal stories (James Herriott), give Drysdale's books a try. If you think you would like to live close to the land and raise animals, read this book for a first-hand account of the difficulties involved in such an undertaking.