DUE to the exceptional demand for tickets during January, it has been necessary to alter the venue for the Amanda Owen talk in Otley on Friday, March 17.

As the Wesley Hall at Otley Methodist Church can only accommodate 300 people, and this number of tickets was sold in the first three weeks of January, the organisers have moved the talk to the Church itself which can seat up to 500 people. Refreshments after the talk, plus book signings by Amanda, will be in the Wesley Hall which was the original venue.

Amanda Owen has been seen by millions on ITV's The Dales and on Channel 5 in Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild living a life that has almost gone in today's modern world, a life ruled by the seasons and her animals. She is a farmer's wife and shepherdess, living alongside her husband Clive and nine children at Ravenseat, a 2000 acre sheep hill farm above Keld at the head of Swaledale in North Yorkshire. It's a challenging life but one she loves.

She is also an author and in The Yorkshire Shepherdess she describes how the rebellious girl from Huddersfield, who always wanted to be a shepherdess, achieved her dreams. Full of amusing anecdotes and unforgettable characters, the book takes us from fitting in with the locals to fitting in motherhood, from the demands of the livestock to the demands of raising a large family in such a rural backwater.

Amanda also evokes the peace of winter, when they can be cut off by snow without electricity or running water, the happiness of spring and the lambing season, and the backbreaking tasks of summertime - haymaking and sheep shearing - inspiring us all to look at the countryside and those who work there with new appreciation, living a life that has almost gone in today's modern world, a life ruled by the seasons and her animals. Many of these tales from her books will be recounted by Amanda when she appears in Otley on Friday, March 17 at 7.30 pm

Tickets for the event, priced at £10 per head, will continue to be on sale until the remaining 200 have been sold. These can be obtained by sending payment to: Amanda Owen Talk, c/o 76 The Whartons, Otley, LS21 2BS along with a Stamped Addressed Envelope for return of the tickets. Cheques should be made payable to “Otley Methodist Church”.

Only once in the past has this scenario occurred when in November 2009 Stuart Maconie, Journalist and Broadcaster, sold out the Wesley Hall and the event had to be moved to the Church where over 400 people attended his talk that evening.

The Church, like the Wesley Hall, has full disabled access into the building for those that require it, and designated wheelchair spaces.