This gentle, witty memoir about raising a llama on a Welsh hill farm was first published 50 years ago. It has lost none of its charm, with a foreword in this edition by John Lewis-Stempel. Ruck had lived on the Carneddi farm in the Welsh hills of Snowdonia with her family since 1945. When Ruck started writing books about her farm life in the 1960s, they were part of the back-to-the-land movement in Britain at that time.

Ruck’s first books, Place of Stones and Hill Farm Story were authentic farm tales. Even in the 1970s, she and her family were still making hay by hand. Just how the author and her family came to buy a young llama from a zoo, transporting it home in a horse trailer, reveals how simple life was back then.

Nusta, pronounced Ny-usta, a Quechen name meaning ‘princess’, was chosen for the gold-coloured llama, and she proved to be courteous, curious and a wonderful addition to the family. While her stately appearance on the Welsh hills startled walkers and climbers in the area, it was her habits indoors that were most unusual. She would tuck her dainty feet under herself and settle on the hearth rug like a swan. But if anyone had Maltesers, tissues, even newspapers at hand, she would devour them, along with sips of cherry brandy.

Ruth Ruck died in 2006, and this new edition of her delightful memoir still has the same ending, with readers left wondering if Nusta became pregnant after being taken to a zoo for mating.

Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville