Mad Shepherds

by L.P. Jacks

First published in 1910, Mad Shepherds, subtitled and other human stories, is an extraordinary book. The author, Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, was a philosopher, educator, writer and Unitarian minister, who came to live in the Vale of Evesham in the northern Cotswolds at the end of the nineteenth century. Mad Shepherds is a lightly fictionalised account of life in the village, which Jacks calls Deadborough, and is also a highly idiosyncratic and authentic exploration of rural life and culture. The protagonist is Snarley Bob, a shepherd, whose gruff and often rude outpourings conceal a dark wit and intelligence. As Jacks writes, 'Mystic, star-gazer, dabbler in the black or blackish arts, he seemed in his lowly occupation of shepherd to represent some strange miscarriage of Nature's designs.' Full of memorable portraits of the villagers, Mad Shepherds is a compulsively readable, sometimes strange book about an England now entirely lost and largely forgotten. This new edition has an introduction by the actor and director Mackenzie Crook.

137 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2026

About the author

Lawrence Pearsall Jacks (9 October 1860 – 17 February 1955), abbreviated L. P. Jacks was an English educator, philosopher, and Unitarian minister who rose to prominence in the period from World War I to World War II.

He was the son in law of Stopford Augustus Brooke.

Reviews

[Michael Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful glimpse of a bygone era in rural England, through its main characters. 'Snarley Bob' and the others involved in this pre-WWI narrative really do jump out from the pages. You almost wish you'd met them in the flesh. We can't of course so this gem of a book will have to suffice.