Along Came a Llama (Hardback) Ruth Janette Ruck (author), John Lewis-Stempel (author of introduction)

My Family and Other Animals meets The Secret Life of Cows: this rediscovered gem of a memoir 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.

Reissued with a new foreword by John Lewis-Stempel, Along Came a Llama is a delightful 1970s farming classic: a charming, witty potrait of country life that will warm the hearts of animal lovers everywhere.