Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen: 'There’s not a chance our Christmas will ever look like a John Lewis one but it's special that nothing changes on the farm'

“I live a life that is so absolutely chaotic with so much going on that I don’t have the energy to be any more creative when I’ve got all this right here in front of me,” says the mum-of-nine, chatting from the remote 2000-acre Yorkshire Dales hill farm where they live with a menagerie of animals. “There’s so much going on and that is my material.

“When I was a kid I liked reading. I wasn’t into reading epic tomes or anything like that. I liked books about agriculture, animals, etcetera. But when it came to anything fictional, nah, couldn’t do it, not interested. Because for me, a story had to be real. It had to be something I could reach out and touch.”

The stories in her book feature the countryside characters - both two-legged and four - that you’ll find on and around the farm, including sheep, cows, chickens, dogs, horses and goats.

In the depths of the winter, they can face howling winds, deep snow and heavy rain, not to mention sub-zero temperatures and lightless days.

But the season, and Christmas especially, is a time of joy and adventure too in the North Yorkshire countryside. Owen carries fond memories from over the years - from the reindeer that ran away from a grotto onto their moorland, teaching the kids to ice skate on the farm’s frozen tarns and starting the tradition of the family’s version of the Winter Olympics.

“You can look around (at Christmastime) and there isn’t any inflatable Santas and I don’t string a load of lights up all over the farmhouse,” Owen says. “Number one, I’d probably short circuit the electricity, number two the goats would probably electrocute themselves. So you can look around and nothing tells you it’s actually Christmas but there is such a feel in the air. And it’s lovely.

“But the thing that’s most special about Christmas, is the fact that nothing changes. That’s what I like. It sounds dead boring. But you’re there on the farm, with your animals, carrying on as usual. You’re not some martyr or pioneer because there’s plenty of people who work Christmases.

“But quite often you’ll find over Christmas you spend more time outside doing your stuff than you would do on a normal day because everything else is shut down. And you can guarantee if something is going to break or you are going to get a puncture, it will be when there’s nobody around.”

For first-generation sheep farmer Owen it’s miles apart from what the festive period was like growing up in suburban Huddersfield, when everybody would retreat indoors with friends and family. These days they head outside, not in, and their place, she admits, is one to avoid if you want to quaff champagne, eat mince pies, and binge watch Christmas TV on the sofa. “But if you want to be outside trying to work out how you’re going to mend something that you can’t take to the garage then this is the perfect place to come.”

And you’d be surprised, she says, at just how many do, shunning the sedentary stoppage of everyday life that defines Christmas for many, for the fast-paced farming activities that continue regardless of any festivities. There’s no cordial invitations sent out for a spot at Ravenseat Christmas but it’s a time for family, friends and farming.

The table is always full, the dogs are scrapping over leftover giblets, there’s never a big enough pan to fit the gravy and it’s quite the skill to get the 40lb turkey out of the oven without spilling fat all over the floor.

“There’s not a chance in hell our Christmas will ever look like a John Lewis Christmas or something out of the Next home catalogue,” muses 50-year-old Owen. “Usually there’s too many people, not enough chairs, not enough cutlery, the plates don’t match ever. Nobody will be folding origami serviettes. But would it absolutely intrinsically make it better if we did? No…It’s about having the confidence to not try to keep up with what the person next door is doing, or your friends, or your relatives.”

“It’s being strong enough and brave enough to say, do you know what, watching another repeat of something on the television on the sofa whilst downing another mince pie isn’t the be all and end all,” Owen continues. “If you like it, great. But if you don’t, then there’s no reason why you should have to do it. It’s a special time of the year for lots of different reasons but you’ve got to make it your own.”

Owen believes it’s the family’s authenticity and their willingness to share their ups and downs that has sparked so much interest in their life on the farm.

Since starring in Channel 5 documentary series Our Yorkshire Farm, the family have gone on to be the focus of numerous shows including Amanda Owen’s Farming Lives, Reuben Owen: Life in the Dales, and Our Farm Next Door, which has been has been commissioned for a third and fourth series following the family as they renovate a centuries-old derelict farmhouse known as Anty John’s into a modern home.

“(Our life) is relatable,” Owen says. “Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it goes awry…It’s not a soapbox to say this is how to parent, this is how to farm, this is how to live, any of that.”

“Parenting is a difficult job at the best of times,” she adds. “Parenting in view of the media, and living your life with people looking in isn’t easy. It’s not a sob story - this is the price you pay, nothing ventured, nothing gained. But I wouldn’t change anything. It has given us all opportunities that we would never have had.”

Christmas Tales from the Farm is one of those for Owen, who has already written five other books and is planning another six children’s ones. This winter, she’s also heading out on a theatre tour, sharing her down-to-earth approach to life in the countryside in a show entitled Onwards and Upwards: Farming, Family and Fiascos. In it, she’ll share anecdotes about the everyday realities of her farming family life, including the mammoth task of restoring Anty John’s to create a family home for the future, as well as festive recollections from years of winters on the farm.

“I spend a lot of time saying to the children - you’ve got to take opportunities,” Owen says. “That’s what I’ve always done so why not carry on?”

Christmas Tales from the Farm, written by Amanda Owen, illustrated by Becca Hall and published by Puffin Books is out now.

Onwards and Upwards: Farming, Family and Fiascos is at Scarborough Spa on November 20, Ilkley King’s Hall on November 24, Scunthorpe Plowright Theatre on December 5 and Middlesbrough Town Hall on December 7. For tickets, visit https://nothird.co.uk/live-shows/amanda-owen/