Hi everyone, this first week of June I’m giving you all my review of a biography from well-known Kiwi author, Danielle Hawkins. This book will have you either laughing or crying, be warned, if you end up doing both, don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Title: Two Shakes of a Lamb’s Tail: The Diary of a Country Vet
Author: Danielle Hawkins
Genre: Biography
Publication details: HarperCollins; NZ, 2021
ISBN: 9781775541585 (Paperback) / 9781775491897 (ebook)
What this book is about: Country life is never dull when you have a husband and two children, 1,200 sheep and 400 cattle, farm dogs and pet lambs, pigs bent on excavation and a goat bent on escape. From calving cows to constipated dogs, weddings to weaning lambs, daffodils to ducklings to droughts, each season brings new challenges and lights. Sometimes it’s exhausting but it’s almost always a lot of fun – anyway, it’s all part and parcel of the life of a Kiwi mother, farmer’s wife and vet.
My review: This delightful biography of Danielle Hawkins’ life as a New Zealand farm vet was equal parts hilarious and heartfelt. Told in the form of diary entries spread over two years marked by seasons, we are whisked off into the rural foothills off Otorohanga where Hawkins and her family farm and live.
One of the reasons I picked up this book was because I had driven past Otorohanga on my way to New Plymouth with friends a couple of decades ago!! I still remember smelling the fresh crisp country air and watching the clouds skim by as Mt Taranaki loomed in the distance. So when I started reading this book, I felt myself digging back into my memories of that experience.
I loved getting to know Danille’s family and friends and learning about country life in this adorable biography. Even her attitude towards the Covid pandemic that began in 2020 is highlighted and her descriptions of the essential work she did as a vet along with her experiences in the supermarket were expertly crafted.
If you are like me and grew up either reading James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small or Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals then you will find a ‘kindred spirit’ in Hawkins!!
My rating: 4½⭐
Miss Mahee's Library of Reads 