SKIRLY CRAG (HB)

Helen Percy's working life as a shepherd takes her away from her home in the lee of her beloved Skirly Crag in the Scottish highlands for many months of the year. Forget beribboned Bo-Peep dresses. Think instead unbecoming waterproofs, the same shirt worn for a week, jeans smeared with gobs of birth-fluid and mustard-coloured lamb-skitter. Why do I do this job, I ask myself? Then there is a rare day on the hill when the lark rises into the clear air above Skirly Crag, thrilling the glen with its reedy melody, and all is well with the world.