Robbie’s Inspiration : Book review – Sometimes I sits and thinks by Jim Webster

Sometimes I sits and thinks

What Amazon says

A collection of anecdotes, it’s the distillation of a lifetime’s experience of peasant agriculture in the North of England. I’d like to say ‘All human life is here,’ but frankly there’s more about Border Collies, Cattle and Sheep.

My review

Jim Webster is a writer and farmer from Cumbria in the UK. Jim has a great English sense of humour and I find his books hilarious. I have read a few of his books set in the fantasy world of Port Naain and which feature Tallis Steelyard, Benor and Maltjie.

This book, Sometimes I sits and thinks, is a little different as it uses the authors own life and experiences as a farmer as a basis. Mr Webster’s points about some of the issues and pitfalls facing farmers in the UK are wrapped in a blanket of humour and served as an interesting literary dish, but they are still revealing.

One of the most interesting aspects about farming revealed in this book is that it has become so much harder to make a living from farming over the past twenty years. While the prices of hired help, machinery, animal feed, and just general living have escalated significantly, the prices of basic foodstuffs have not followed suit. I think it is a great shame that food security is not more important in the commercial world. After all, what would we eat if there were no farmers?

Some of the anecdotes included in this book that made me laugh long and hard, were as follows:

When young Jim tells his teacher he cannot stay after school to be punished because he has to get home to milk the cows as his father is away – there’s no real arguing with that point;

When young Jim’s headmaster and his family come walking up the lane where Jim is directing the cows through the gate. The family decide to watch and one of the cows subjects his headmaster to a cow mucus shower;

When young Jim sells some school mates a bit of his fathers ammonium nitrate and they start an explosions business;

Older Jim’s stories about the sheep and the lead troublemaking sheep called Ya bluidy auld witch are equally entertaining. So very funny to read about their antics, being fairly dim creatures that do not take well to change, but I have told you enough, you’ll have to read the book to find out more about the sheep.

Purchase Sometimes I sits and thinks

Amazon US

Amazon UK

About Jim Webster

An image posted by the author.

Someone once wrote this about me

“Jim Webster is probably still fifty something, his tastes in music are eclectic, and his dress sense is rarely discussed in polite society. In spite of this he has a wife and three daughters.

He has managed to make a living from a mixture of agriculture, consultancy, and freelance writing. Previously he has restricted himself to writing about agricultural and rural issues but including enough Ancient Military history to maintain his own sanity. But seemingly he has felt it necessary to branch out into writing fantasy and Sci-Fi novels.”

Now with eight much acclaimed fantasy works and two Sci-Fi to my credit it seems I might be getting into the swing of things.

Find Jim Webster

Amazon UK Author Page

Blog

Goodreads

Twitter

Published by robbiesinspiration

Robbie and Michael Cheadle are co-authors of the Sir Chocolate series of books. We both like to write and bake.

62 thoughts on “Robbie’s Inspiration : Book review – Sometimes I sits and thinks by Jim Webster”

  2. Thank you for the lovely review, Robbie! Also thank you to Jim for writing such a great book. I had always looked for something like this, but never found it. There are not too many farmers who are active as a writer. In addition, most farmers now lack the necessary sense of humor. xx Michael

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    1. Hi Janet, lovely to see you. Jim’s tales remind me of my mom’s stories about her life growing up on a diary farm in the UK. So many challenges, but a wholesome life where everyone worked hard and helped everyone else. I just love reading about it.

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      1. I meant to say down to earth blogs! It’s a few generations since any of my family were farmers, but most of us are fascinated and we have a few programmes on television following farming life.

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      2. Somebody commented that the UK was the first country into the industrial revolution, so here, people left the land and moved into cities t work in industry at least a generation, perhaps two, before they did it in other countries.
        So where in some countries everybody remembers a grandparent who farmed, for us it’s often an ancestor who died before we were born. As a country we’re ‘on average’ so much further from the land than many other countries

        Saying that, it’s a broad generalisation, you still meet people who do have that connection

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  7. Fabulous review, Robbie. My father was born in a small hamlet, and although I’m sure there are differences between the different farming communities, I’ve heard a few anecdotes about the place as well, so this one definitely appeals. Congratulations to the author as well.

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    1. It never really caught on here. I suspect there was never enough of us to do it. But I have laid a cow down, three of us on a rope under veterinary supervision, lying it down so he could operate

      You pull from behind the cow, the rope is along the line of the backbone, and it sits her down

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