Helen Percy - Whistlebare: The Shepherd, her dog, the mist and the mountain

Helen Percy, a former Church of Scotland minister, decided to change her life and become a shepherd. In her first book, Scandalous, Immoral, Improper (2011), Helen told of endurance and survival of familial and ecclesiastical abuse. Over the years, Helen has worked with victims of child rape in South Africa and donkeys in the Kalahari. Back in the Highlands, she is contracted to several eccentric farmers, often travelling in a small van with her sheepdogs, a tame duck and an epileptic hare. The stories in Skirly Crag and its sequel Whistlebare are based in Sutherland.Helen will reflect on the similarities and the differences between her previous career as a pastor of people and the last 30 years as a shepherd. Helen will offer some top tips for dealing with awkward animals and cussed farmers. Whistlebare is nature writing, humour and the reality of living on the land rolled into one.