Disposable Diaries: Rosamund Young

Our latest ‘Disposable Diaries’ comes from Rosamund Young, the author of The Secret Life of Cows, a Sunday Times bestseller and much-loved record of a hitherto secret world. In the book’s foreword, Alan Bennett proclaims, ‘It alters the way one looks at the world’, and British broadcaster John Humphrys in describing Rosamund’s farm, warmly states, ‘there is a real sense of nature in harmony with itself’. This photo diary gives an introduction to the characters on Kite’s Nest Farm, as well as a glimpse of the realities of farm life.

Rosamund Young: . . . a little help from ‘John Deere’ reorganising the woodpile at the side of the farmhouse,
(we refer to the tractor by the manufacturer’s name!)

Mother and daughter and best friends both named Amelia.

Theodore, son of Two-horned Dot (sister of One-horned Dot).

Crab apples – part of the wild birds’ diet.

Approach to Kite’s Nest farmhouse.

Sign made by a friend (Andrew Beckwith from Berwick upon Tweed)

Some of the sheep grazing in the early evening light.

Field mushrooms, Mmmm (hand for size comparison).

Our potato harvest.

Gold Celandine with her son on the left and her daughter almost hidden behind her.

The Secret Life of Cows is available in paperback from 7 June here.