In 1980 Brian Brett moved to a farm on Salt Spring Island, officially called Willowpond but affectionately known as Trauma Farm, where he raises chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, and goats; tends an extensive orchard and a prolific vegetable garden; concocts fabulous meals from the bounties of the farm; and has various misadventures. This book traces a single day on the farm, beginning as Brett wakes in darkness and rises to tramp over the land and watch the sun rise across the ocean and finishing under starlight as he reclines exhausted in the hot tub and gazes at the shadowy bodies of the peacocks roosting in the giant maple. Along the way he explores the natural history of the small mixed farm, meditates on the perfection of the egg, offers critiques of factory farms and the monopolization of the slaughtering industry, muses on the uses and misuses of gates, banters with his wife, sons, and neighbours, and ponders the constant presence of death as he goes about the activities of farming-birthing lambs, splitting and stacking cedar rails, contending with rats, helping an aged horse to his death. As one of his neighbours says, "If you've got livestock, you've also got dead stock."Underlain with deep knowledge of biology and botany, the text is erudite, poetic, and passionate, laced throughout with a wicked wit, and provides an unforgettable portrait of one farm and of all farms and the issues that they face and that we all face in this age of industrialization and homogenization. Brian Brett's farm and this book offer a rich and thought-provoking antidote to that world. BRIAN BRETT was born in Vancouver and studied literature at Simon Fraser University from 1969 to 1974. Writing and publishing since the late 1960s, he has also been involved in an editorial capacity with several publishing firms such as the Governor-General Award winning Blackfish Press.

In the early seventies, he began working as a freelance journalist and critic for various publications and newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Vancouver Sun, The New Reader, Books In Canada, The Victoria Times-Colonist, and The Vancouver Province, The Yukon News -- where he was the poetry critic for two years, and had his own column. His journalism has appeared in almost every major newspaper in Canada. He has been a member of organizations ranging from P.E.N. International, The League of Canadian Poets, the B.C. Federation Of Writers, to the Writer's Union of Canada.

Brian Brett currently lives on a farm with his family on Salt Spring Island, B.C., where he cultivates his garden and creates ceramic forms.Over 5,000 copies sold in hardcover in North America. 05/11/10.