First published in 1910, MadShepherds, subtitled and other human stories, is an extraordinarybook. The author, Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, was a philosopher, educator, writerand Unitarian minister, who came to live in the Vale of Evesham in the northernCotswolds at the end of the nineteenth century. Mad Shepherds is alightly fictionalised account of life in the village, which Jacks callsDeadborough, and is also a highly idiosyncratic and authentic exploration ofrural life and culture. The protagonist is Snarley Bob, a shepherd, whose gruffand often rude outpourings conceal a dark wit and intelligence. As Jacks writes,'Mystic, star-gazer, dabbler in the black or blackish arts, he seemed in hislowly occupation of shepherd to represent some strange miscarriage of Nature'sdesigns.' Full of memorable portraits of the villagers, Mad Shepherds isa compulsively readable, sometimes strange book about an England now entirelylost and largely forgotten. This new edition has an introduction by the actorand director Mackenzie Crook.
