Try as she might, journalist Fiona Ross has never been able to find any trace of Highland roots in her family tree.

Despite this, she loves the Scottish Highlands in a way that is ‘raw, primeval, fundamental.’

With their three children on the cusp of adulthood, she and her husband Neil decided to sell their flat in the centre of Glasgow and buy ten acres of farmland in the west of Scotland, where they could fulfil their long-held dream of raising Highland cattle.

In short order they had bought three calves, ‘doe-eyed, curly-haired lassies’, who were so tame they enjoyed being groomed with a comb and having their cheeks tickled.

Most books about city slickers becoming farmers are full of comical mishaps and embarrassing disasters but, refreshingly, Ross and her husband – handily, an agronomist by training – turn out to be pretty good at farming.

Their three original cows are for breeding only and will never end up on a plate, but soon they have acquired more cows, as well as pigs and lambs, and start selling their meat locally.

They are so successful that they need more land and end up buying four tumbledown crofts on the Hebridean island of Mull.

Wild Knowing really kicks into gear at this point. Although their new house is uninhabitable (they live in a caravan while doing it up), and an hour’s drive from the main ferry port, it overlooks a magnificent bay with a long, creamy expanse of sand.

Mull is a place where community is everything.

If you mention in the pub that you like shellfish, you’ll find a crate of shrimp waiting for you at the harbour.

If your animals have strayed, a neighbour is always on hand to help catch them.

The bush telegraph is scarily efficient – when your car goes into a ditch, the whole island knows about it in no time.

On the downside, it rains a lot and the ever-present mud feels ‘like a demonic force draining the lifeblood from us’. When the first real winter storm hits, the couple are miserably unprepared: the only candle they can find is a scented one from a gift shop.

This is a warm, joyful book about the transformative effect of pursuing your dreams in middle age.

Ross revels in her new island life and adores her herd – or fold, as Highland cattle should be called.

These gentle, hairy creatures have made ‘this strange, wild place a home for us . . . and changed our family, our sense of self and our sense of each other’.