While recovering in hospital from a hip operation, farmer Edgar Lumb used to entertain the nurses with tales of his farming life high in the Pennines.

They were so fascinated they told him he should take up the pen and write his life story.

It took him 20 years to get round to it, but now his book "Born to be a Farmer" has been published, tracing his life from boyhood in Hebden Bridge to farming with his son Andrew at Cure Hill Farm, Oakworth.

"I started it two years ago and have dedicated it to my grandson, Sam Lumb, who is nine," said Mr Lumb, who said he owes a great deal to friend and local schoolteacher Shirley Davids.

"She read it and thought it was really worthwhile publishing. Without her help it would never have been published," he said.

Edgar, who in the 1950s made his name as a pig breeder, came to Oakworth 30 years ago with his wife Betty, 75, who is now a resident at Ingrow Nursing Home.

Until then had never used a tractor and had relied on horses. Once in Oakworth he was able to take up milk production, an ambition he had held since his father gave up many years before.

"I bought a brand new David Brown tractor," he said. "Until then I had never sat on a tractor, let alone driven one, so a friend of mine came and taught me what to do."

In his book Mr Lumb recalls helping his father Albert on the farm, which was 800 feet above sea level overlooking neighbouring Hebden Bridge.

There was no gas or electricity and the living room was lit by a single oil lamp, hung from the roof.

"Our mother was an exceptionally good cook on the old farmhouse range, she would bake every Wednesday, cakes and buns and fruit pies made with local grown fruits and sometimes she would bake bread," he said.

"She said we could eat it faster than she could bake it, so she had it delivered by a horse drawn covered wagon along with other provisions every Friday up our hillside."

Mr Lumb's paperback book , which is published at £3.99 by Delta G of Todmorden, opens with a picture of Edgar and his four brothers posing with their horses just before the start of the 1939-45 war (see above) and closes with him in retirement, but still helping out feeding the free range hens and collecting eggs.

The book is available from Reid's, Cavendish Street.