Softer Crofter

Fiona was a Glasgow girl through and through, but when she was gifted an old leather-bound family ledger, she discovered a Highland family history that would change her life.

The ledger records the story of the family's 19th-century Highland cattle fold. Little did Fiona know that she would soon be moving with her husband and two beloved dogs to a remote Argyllshire croft where she would start her own herd (or fold, as it is known for Highland cows). On a wave-washed island, in the shadow of the Highland Clearances, Fiona moved in with 48 magnificent cows who would become her family.

This book is an ode to farming and the softer life that can be lived in the Hebrides. It depicts the life-affirming joy of bathing every morning in the icy Atlantic before taking the cows for a paddle. It tells calamitous tales of amorous bulls, escaping heifers, upturned quad bikes, falling off piers and accidentally injecting herself with cow meds. It tells the stories of births — so many beautiful births — followed by the drama of catching each slippery calf, holding it and tagging it, all under the baffled shaggy-fringed gaze of its 500-kilo, massively-horned mum.

The Softer Crofter is a heart-warming celebration of second chances, stubborn cows and the quiet magic of finding home in the most unexpected of places.