Follow the Flock

February 1, 2021
Northern Yorkshire advocate for rural living, designer, and author, Coulthard has produced an addictively readable book in which she focuses on one of our oldest domestic animals: the sheep. Sheep were domesticated, as were most of our ""farm animals,"" in the Middle East's Fertile Crescent as early as 10,000 BCE, and Coulthard follows their path from meat animals to milk and cheese producers to wool bearers. Wool is so important a fiber that it probably led to the invention of shears (and scissors) in order to remove the fleece effectively. Consuming sheep's milk, along with that of goats and cattle, led to a genetic change in adult humans: the ability to digest lactose. Words and sayings derived from keeping sheep--""dyed in the wool,"" ""tenterhooks,"" and ""shoddy""--along with place names such as ""Shepton"" (sheep farm) or ""Woolwich,"" fill one chapter, while others cover the rise of shepherds and their sheepdogs. Finishing with coverage of working with wool (carding, spinning, weaving, and knitting), wool's continued economic importance, and even the role of Dolly the cloned sheep in modern science, Coulthard has produced an ovine wonder.

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