This Farming Life

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Farmer Tim Saunders manages to incorporate some writing into his days, and here he describes his life through the seasons: Summer, shearing, slaughter, crop harvest, conservation; Autumn, floods, trading stock, drenching, dagging; Winter, maize harvest, lambing; and Spring, docking, pet sheep, weaning.

It's a tough life and through his powerful, poignant writing Tim tells of his connection to the land, why he loves farming, how he's also conflicted by it and what it is that keeps him tethered to that place

Reviews

'An unsentimental yet lyrical love letter to the land, and the humans and animals who inhabit it, this extraordinary memoir follows life on a family farm through the seasons. This is a man-on-his-land story unlike anything you will have read before. Tough and tender, heartfelt, fabulous.'

'Vivid and brilliantly evocative . . . It is a compelling read, and the idea of moving through each season gives you a sectional painting (a polyptych) of what is like to be a farmer nowadays. Mixed in with family history over the years it is a terrific read.' Mark Pirie, Poetry Archive of NZ

Author Bio

Tim Saunders farms sheep and beef near Palmerston North. He has published poetry and short stories in the NZ Listener and Flash Frontier, and won the 2018 Mindfood Short Story Competition. He performs poetry around the Manawatu and beyond.