5x15 was delighted to welcome James Rebanks, bestselling author of The Shepherd's Life and English Pastoral, to Conway Hall on Monday 4th November. He was live in conversation with 5x15's Rosie Boycott, speaking about his highly anticipated, captivating new book The Place of Tides.

One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on.

Back at home, Rebanks couldn’t stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly – and yet strangely familiar. Years passed. Then, one day, he wrote her a letter, asking if he could return. Bring work clothes, she replied, and good boots, and come quickly: her health was failing. And so he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island.

The Places of Tides is the story of that season. It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. What began as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge and forgiveness.

Praise for The Place of Tides
'James Rebanks has done a miraculous thing. He takes the reader with him to a stark, remote island on the strangest mission in the toughest circumstances and makes you feel like you’re coming home. A profound, transformative, uplifting story.'- ISABELLA TREE

'An extraordinary story, gently told. This was just the book I needed.'- NIGEL SLATER

'Humane, beautifully paced, gentle, and strangely compelling, The Place of Tides feels like not only a modern classic, but one we very much need right now.'- GEORGE SAUNDERS

James Rebanks is a farmer and writer based in the Lake District. His No. 1 bestselling debut, The Shepherd’s Life, was translated into sixteen languages. His second book, English Pastoral, was also a Top Ten bestseller and was named the Sunday Times Nature Book of the Year. (Photo credit: Sophie Davidson)

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