Bodacious
Page 19
My sheep never know when I’m watching, but I’m watching, always watching and counting.
Pepper and I work well together. I’m always in the driver’s seat, while Pepper is happy to sit behind on the quad’s rear rack.
A moment of calm as I sit among bluebells and cow parsley under a flowering chestnut tree.
Acknowledgements
I must thank Bodacious firstly for allowing me to write what I think I know about his farm life story. He has very strong opinions and I had to follow his strict instructions. He has been interviewed many times but never written a book before.
As we enter into the final edits of this creation for Bodacious I would love to thank all those who were so very kind to help me with all sorts of things. There are many but I must limit myself to a few important people, like Pat, Alex and Sally who were there whenever I called for their help. Thank you to my agent Marianne Gunn O’Connor who fell in love with Bodacious’s story and believed in my ability to tell it. Charlie Redmayne the CEO of Harper Collins who loved the pitch and took a chance on an Irish blanket designing shepherd who had a cat that could spin a biographical tail. Vicky Eribo my Harper Collins editor who spent several days and many hours going over editorial corrections with me on the phone after the Beast from the East clashed with Storm Emma to produce a blizzard of epic proportions and a time delaying factor that no farmer could compete with. The design team that produced such a zinging book cover from some of my farm life photographs. Everyone at HarperCollins and last but not least the Harper Collins publicity team.
Alison Walsh was a wonderful guiding hand that I could cling onto as I dived into the unknown having never written a book before. Alison edited and instructed with such kind attention and asked excellent questions which I found I could easily respond to. My wonderful parents Julia and Richard Crampton helped me in innumerable ways that are beyond counting. In particular they were great at keeping me in line and facts correct about family history. I also learned loads from my father due to his editing ability and knowledge. I am grateful to nighttime lambing observer Susan Wilde who came to stay for twelve days. She inspected the sheep shed nightly looking for and waiting for sheep to lamb. She only called me when she felt something was amiss or that a ewe was indeed lambing. This enabled me to have a relatively full night’s sleep of five to six hours unless Susan called. There was one memorable twenty-four hours in which I had little sleep, loads of lambing and I even managed to get some writing done between meals and husbandry.
The veterinarian Tommy Heffernan read through my manuscript to make sure I made no huge husbandry or veterinarian mistakes. I’m sure there are those in the farming world who have different technics to accomplish similar husbandry endeavors. Deborah Robson kindly dealt with my wool questions with wonderful detailed emails and her fantastic source book ‘The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook’. If there are any mistakes, they are mine alone in not understanding correctly what I have been told by the expert opinion of this well informed individual.
Another indispensable kind neighbor was Simon Mosse for responding without question whenever a farming issue occurred in which I needed his wonderful tractor or shepherding knowledge. I hope that now this book is written and if enough people buy and enjoy it Bodacious might be able to buy me a tractor on his earnings.
There is a plethora of others I could mention but that would be a book unto itself. Just know that it took a community of encouragement, support and help to enable me to write this my first book while also farming.
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