James Irvine Robertson, formerly something in advertising, had two farming misadventures in the 1970s. On the North Wales border he tried his hand at pig farming; in Devon he turned to dairying. As a result he wrote Any Fool Can be a Pig Farmer and Any Fool Can be a Dairy Farmer, published by Farming Press in 1975 and 1980 respectively. The dairy farming book was the first one I took on when I joined the company.
"There was one sow who aborted in the yard. We called in the vet who diagnosed arthritis which seemed a curious reason for aborting. She went off her food and was re-diagnosed as suffering from pneumonia and then died. The post mortem showed a blood clot in her uterus, the most likely explanation for which was that another sow had trodden on her."
That's the Robertson style: a naive wonderment at the idiocies of the people and animals involved with farming. And it's very funny.
The books were reprinted several times by Farming Press in different formats but have been out of print since about 2000. They are now to be brought back into print this spring by The Good Life Press.
The original books were amusingly illustrated by Charles Gore. James Robertson went on to write more countryside books under the 'Any Fool' heading with titles such as Any Fool Can be a Villager. Published by Pelham, these were illustrated by Larry.
Another Robertson venture was four books published in the early 1980s in the 'Nutshell Series'. He researched and wrote titles about south-western counties including his beloved Devon, collaborating with illustrator Pauline Clements. These were delightful books published by Robertson's own Clover Press.
In more recent years Robertson has been living in Scotland and writing journalism and books about aspects of Scottish history and genealogy, often related to his own ancestors. Apparently he is now moving to Toulouse, the story of which can be found on his James Irvine Robertson website.
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