A NORTH Pennine farming family, whose life running a remote sheep holding has been featured in ITV's The Dales, are in the running for a national award.

Clive and Amanda Owen, who farm at Ravenseat on the hills above Kirkby Stephen, have been shortlisted in the Family Farming Business of the Year category of the British Farming Awards.

They have been named finalists along with families from Cornwall, Lancashire, Worcestershire and Lanarkshire.

Amanda described the nomination as 'out of the blue'.

"We have no idea who nominated us," she said. "It has come as a complete surprise and I feel quite honoured."

Clive and Amanda, who have eight children, first attracted a national following after their livestock farm regularly featured on The Dales programme, presented by comedian Adrian Edmondson.

But since last year's publication of Amanda's biography, Yorkshire Shepherdess, the family's fame has spread worldwide and she has garnered thousands of Twitter followers.

Now Amanda, who gave birth to her eighth child just two months ago, has revealed she is writing a second book about the family's busy life at Ravenseat, which is expected to be published next spring.

She told the Gazette that becoming an author was a 'great form of farm diversification' which fitted in nicely with the family farming routine and wasn't 'a blot on the landscape'.

l The British Farming Awards winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Droitwich on October 15.