Along Came a Llama

*WATERSTONES WELSH BOOK OF THE MONTH* My Family and Other Animals meets The Secret Life of Cows: this rediscovered gem tells the charming tale of how a baby llama transformed a Welsh farming family forever (with a foreword by John Lewis-Stempel). Things llamas like: Snaffling cherry brandy, Easter eggs, and the Radio Times. Fluttering movie star eyelashes at surprised visitors. Curling up in 'tea-cosy' position by the fire. Orbiting, helicoptering, and oompahing. Humming along to classical music. Locking victims in the lavatory. Things llamas dislike: Having toenails trimmed by a visiting circus. Being adopted mother to an orphaned lamb. Invitations to star on Blue Peter. Accidentally swimming. Snowdonia's rainfall. The dark. Ruth Ruck's family live on a Welsh mountain farm, no strangers to cow pats on the carpet and nesting hens in the larder. When dark days strike, they embark on a farming experiment to cheer them all up - but raising a baby llama proves more of an adventure than expected .

Ruth Janette Ruck wrote three much-loved memoirs - Place of Stones(1961), Hill Farm Story(1966), and Along Came A Llama(1978) - about her Welsh hill farm Carneddi which became a local tourist attraction in Snowdonia, even starring in an 'About Britain' episode called 'The Lady and the Llama.' She died in 2006 but her family still run the same farm today - minus the llama, alas. John Lewis-Stempel is a writer and farmer. His books include the Sunday Times bestsellers The Running Hare and The Wood. He is the only person to have won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing twice, with Meadowland and Where Poppies Blow. In 2016 he was Magazine Columnist of the Year for his column in Country Life. He lives in Herefordshire and France with his wife and two children.