Big Pig, Little Pig
  • Published: 6 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241977149
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

Big Pig, Little Pig

A Tale of Two Pigs in France

Formats & editions
EBook
6 Jul 2017
Paperback
16 Jul 2018
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A life-affirming memoir revelling in the comic, fond and enduring entanglement of people, animals and places

When Jacqueline and her husband move to south-west France, they embrace rural village life and buy two pigs to rear for slaughter. But as they get to know the animals better, can they bear to actually do it? This is a memoir about that fateful decision, but it's also about the ethics of meat eating in the modern age, and whether we should know and respect the animals we eat. Threaded throughout are the stories of Toby the Sapient Pig, who was something of a celebrity in late 18th-century England, and an elegy to rural France whose life and traditions are dying out. At its heart, this book is a love story, exploring the increasing attachment of the author for her particular pigs, and celebrating the intimacy of humans and pigs over the centuries.
  • Published: 6 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241977149
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320
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About the author

Jacqueline Yallop

Jacqueline Yallop is the author of three novels and a history of Victorian collecting. She has a PhD in nineteenth-century literature and culture, and has worked as a museum curator in Manchester and Sheffield. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Aberystwyth.

portrait photo of Jacqueline Yallop

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Praise for Big Pig, Little Pig

By turn, poignant, funny, educational and, yes, brutal . . . Yallop's skill lies in blending autobiography with lyrical nature writing.

Radio Times

Quietly devastating . . . Yallop writes with great tenderness about the hogs as housekeepers and gourmands

Daily Telegraph

A delightful and entertaining memoir

Woman and Home

A beautifully written and quietly devastating account of raising two young pigs on [Yallop's] smallholding in the south of France

Frances Wilson, The New Statesman

The narrative tension is as tightly coiled as a thriller

Observer

Fascinating . . . you certainly have a treat in store

Literary Review

Very affecting

Daily Mail