The Yorkshire Authoress: Amanda Owen Is Writing A Children’s Book

From the Yorkshire Dales to television screens across the nation and once again to our bookshelves: Amanda Owen has a shiny new book deal. According to The Bookseller, which broke the news this morning, Owen – who is best known by her ‘Yorkshire Shepherdess’ alias – has secured a deal with Puffin to pen not one but seven children’s books. Here’s everything we know so far.

Amanda Owen’s Children’s Books: Everything We Know So Far

Amanda Owen is working on seven new books for children, all set to be published by Puffin in the coming years, blending her farming expertise with her signature down-to-earth voice. Despite being best known for toiling away on her family farm, Amanda has already cracked on with her books between lambing, mucking and more. The first, Christmas Tales From The Farm, is set to be published on 11 September 2025.

Amanda says she is ‘delighted’ to be ‘[entering] the world of children’s books’. ‘As a mother myself, I know firsthand the joy that books can bring to young readers and how a book can stay with you into adulthood, take you places and open up new worlds,’ she says.

Amanda’s editor at Puffin, Katie Sinfield, adds that ‘it felt only natural to bring Amanda’s remarkable farming experience and wonderful gift for storytelling to young readers’.

Amanda Owen in Our Farm Next Door (Channel 4)

In an interview with C&TH in 2017, Amanda shared her love of reading, telling Lucy Cleland how she ‘read and read, anything and everything, including James Herriot’. But ‘it wasn’t until she stumbled upon one glossy hardback that she found in a Huddersfield library called Hill Shepherd,’ Lucy writes, ‘that [Amanda] knew that that was exactly what she wanted to do.’

Amanda rose to fame in 2018 with the first season of Our Yorkshire Farm. Before that, she had appeared with husband Clive on The Dales, and gained attention, again, through the written word: on Twitter. It was on the social media platform Amanda created her ‘Yorkshire Shepherdess’ alias, which led to her penning a non-fiction book of the same name in 2015. Our Yorkshire Farm originally aired on Channel 5, but drew to a close in 2022. Then last year, Channel 4 revealed it was working on a new observational series with Amanda: Our Farm Next Door.

Before turning to children’s fiction, Amanda has written five non-fiction books, inviting readers into her world of farming. How does she have the time? ‘After the children are in bed, you’ll find me squintin’ on mi iPad,’ she told Lucy in 2017.

What Are The Books About?

According to The Bookseller, Amanda’s books will span picture books, middle-grade fiction and non-fiction. Christmas Tales From The Farm is a collection of festive short stories suitable for children aged between eight and 12, inspired by Amanda’s adventures with her family at Ravenseat Farm with illustrations by Becca Hall.

Katie Sinfield teases some of the content: ‘I can’t wait for families everywhere to meet real-life characters such as Chalky the dog and Coco the sheep, and to experience the magic of Ravenseat Farm through the warmth of Amanda’s bestselling writing and Becca Hall’s beautiful illustrations.’

Release Date