Exciting news about Orkney Boreray!

Early in 2022 I was asked by Chelsea Green Publishing if I’d ever thought of writing a book to tell the story of the Orkney Boreray sheep. The short answer is that I hadn’t, but in 3 weeks time, after far more work than I’d ever imagined but with fantastic support from my editor Muna and copyeditor Susan, my book, The Lost Flock, will be available to buy on September 14 2023. Initially in the UK as a hardback with audio and paperback versions to follow. After a great deal of interest from sheep and wool folk in America the publication date for the book there has been bought forward to September 14 as well.

The book tells the story of the Orkney Boreray sheep, their history since their ancestors came to Scotland with the first Neolithic farmers 6000 years ago, the growth of the Orkney Boreray Community that farms them in eight flocks on five different islands in Orkney and the craftspeople in Orkney that work with their skins, horns and wool.

The Lost Flock has several strands weaving through it, including what in my life led me to end up in Orkney with the special Boreray sheep and fighting for them to have a sustainable future and able to be farmed profitably, with high welfare and an agroecological ethos in how we all farm them.

It is also a detective story as I set out to try and find the origins of all Boreray sheep and the special story behind the group of Boreray sheep, now only in Orkney, that are known as the ‘lost flock’.

The book is being launched in Orkney on 12 September when I give a talk about it at the Orkney International Science Festival, and the Orcadian Bookshop will be there to sell copies of the book that I will be delighted to sign for people. Find out more here.

The book can be pre-ordered through online booksellers. Here are two examples:

• Waterstones
• Amazon

You can of course order it through your local bookshop, using ISBN-13: 978-1915294135

These are some links to pre-order in America:

• Chelsea Green
• Amazon