Chewing the Cud

Adult fans of Dick King-Smith's animal stories will derive much pleasure from this memoir. It is, in essence, a chronicle of a Gloucestershire man's farming life, dominated by his obsession with, and love for, the numerous animals which he and his family kept over the years at Woodlands Farm. 'All of these mooing, grunting, bleating, squawking, quacking things,' he writes, 'were of surpassing interest to us, characters, with names and personalities.' It is part of King-Smith's gift to be able to convey so entertainingly and unsentimentally the idiosyncrasies of these creatures, not least their frequently vigorous mating practices! The tone is light-hearted, modest and nostalgic; the overall picture is of someone thoroughly at ease with life, someone who (even after more than a hundred children's books) remains slightly bemused by his success.