The Nature Reader

A thread for discussing Richard Mabey, Roger Deakin et al.

Have recently enjoyed Deakin's "Notes from Walnut Tree Farm" and now reading Frank Fraser Darling's "Island Years, Island Farm". Particularly appreciated the anger that cut through the former.

Does Deakin's Waterlog count? Because that is one of my favourite books ever. I don't know Island Years, Island Farm but it looks interesting. I have also enjoyed Robert Macfarlane's Wild Places. Fnar fnar.

This is a good place to start for newcomers.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41iL3sGBWcL._SL500_.jpg

I love the Roger Deakin books!

This thread might be useful too btw:
is there a burzum of nature's geat cathedrals?

Waterlog also one of my favourite books. I didn't read it for ages on the grounds that I'm unlikely to ever "wild swim" but it was one of the most evocative books I've ever read. If anything is ever going to convince me to jump in a cold river it is Waterlog.

I've had a pretty good strike rate with Little Toller books including re-issues of the Unofficial Countryside, Letters from Skokholm and Four Hedges. The only one to disappoint so far has been Edward Thomas's The South Country - could barely get past the first chapter. Journal of a Disappointed Man is on my must read list.

Have just ordered Four Hedges - looks totally My Kind Of Thing. Thanks for pointing that out.

Amusing to read about the harvesting of gannets/gugas by the islanders of Ness in "Island Years, Island Farm" (written in the late 1930s) a week after seeing the same subject on the BBC's Coast.

Likely to buy Caught By The River's "On Nature", despite the slightly luke warm review in the Guardian.

"Island Years, Island Farm" runs out of steam a little but still very powerful.

On my shelf to read: Mabey's "Beechcombings", Cohu's "Out of the WoodS" and Lowe's "Fields" (the latter two bought very cheaply in a garden centre). "Edgelands" is on the shelf too but I've previously started it and found it too annoying.

Will Cohu's "Out of the Woods" was a breezy read but strangely irritating in lots of places. I've just noticed from the dust cover that it was to be filed under "Nature/Humour".

Reading Mabey's "Beechcombings" after the Will Cohu book, I'm struck by how many *ideas* Mabey crams into his text, how many tangents he takes.

Having a second attempt at getting into Edward Thomas' The South Country. Find it kind of ... cluttered. Worth persevering with?

Didn't much like the Cohu book either. Some of the tips for identifying trees were useful enough (the dirty fingernails of the ash!) but it didn't do much for me beyond that.

This is a good one if you haven't read it:

http://images.word-power.co.uk/images/product_images/9780954221744.jpg

Have ordered Caught By The River: On Nature while it's as good as half price on Amazon. Tempted to pick up Journal of a Disappointed Man. Quite intrigued by Henry Williamson's Salar the Salmon.

Enjoyed - no, that's not the right word at all - Journal of a Disappointed Man. Not quite "nature" enough for my current mood/reading interests, perhaps. Sometimes funny, sometimes harrowing.

Anyone read ...

Jefferies' Wild Life In A Southern County
Bells' Men and the Fields
Bates' Through The Woods
Hudson's A Shepherd's Life

?

What did you make of Four Hedges, Ned Trifle II?

It's my bedside reading right now. Enjoying it greatly. A calming contrast to current events.

Aye, it's *lovely* isn't it?

Racing through Mark Cocker's Crow Country.

Pondering what to read next.

Fancy something similar to Four Hedges.

Yes, me too. Mrs Trifle is enjoying that now - and she is a very rare reader. I can't (offhand) think of anything like it. I haven't read a lot of gardening books but I've certainly never read one as sensual as this. There's a great chapter on scything that is just beautiful.

http://media.ft.com/cms/c80e4bd6-9ac2-11df-87e6-00144feab49a.jpg

Doesn't seem to be much else by her, readily available.

Came home from the library with Stephen Moss's "A Sky Full of Starlings", Richard Mabey's "The Perfumier and the Stinkhorn" and Martin Wainwright's (ed) "A Gleaming Landscape: A Hundred Years of the Guardian's Country Diary".

Not finding the Moss book particularly gratifying. Feels a bit ... tossed off inbetween other projects.

Mildly tempted to pick up "Nature Tales: Encounters with Britain's Wildlife" to see if it tempts me to pursue the writing of any of the contributors.

Is Elford's "A Year In The Woods" any good? Ditto Mabey's "A Brush With Nature"?

.

"A Gleaming Landscape: A Hundred Years of the Guardian's Country Diary" is very good. Will start reading the column in the actual paper.

No thoughts on these?

Jefferies' Wild Life In A Southern County
Bells' Men and the Fields
Bates' Through The Woods
Hudson's A Shepherd's Life

?

(The four books above are from Little Toller's aesthetically pleasing series of re-issues - pondering which to buy next).

I was reading through the Hudson book in A Well Known Cambridge Bookshop to-day funnily enough. I was obviously enjoying it because I forgot that the rest of the Trifles were waiting for me outside.

Possibly my next purchase although I ought to see what the library has first ...

Am enjoying Annie Proulx memoir Bird Cloud about building a house in the middle of a Wyoming nature reserve which i picked up in a discount store. It seems to have annoyed her fans by being too concerned with the minutiae of building the house and there is a little too much Proulx in it but there are some good passages about the local flora and fauna (and geology). Not sure it really fits in with this thread exactly but it's worth a look. Would also be at home in the quiddities and agonies of the ruling class thread though.

Mabey's "The Perfumier and the Stinkhorn" is a curious thing. Short, for a start.

Ah, just noticed three forthcoming Little Tollers ...

Kenneth Allsopp's In The Country.
Jocelyn Brooke's The Military Orchid.
Robert Gibbings' Sweet Thames Run Softly.

Damn that Press - all of those look interesting, esp. the Gibbings which I have a feeling I read years ago. I'm going to have to find a way to earn more money.

Have to confess that I'm not familiar with any of these three but the hit rate has been high so far. And they are beautiful.

Just finished Stephen Moss's Birds Britannia: How the British fell in love with birds. Readable (ie. raced through it in a couple of days) though with some annoying stylistic quirks. Missed that sense of "ideas" that comes with Mabey 'n' Deakin books.

Liking Bells' Men and the Fields a lot though do wish it was still light enough to read in the garden in an evening . . .

About to start on the Hudson book ...

Allsopp's "In The Country" is good. Feels incongruent that it is derived from Daily Mail columns (I wonder whether the Daily Mail has changed or whether it felt incongruent at the time).

Had high hopes for "Sweet Thames, Run Softly" but Gibbings seemed so easily side-tracked as to be annoying.

Now on Jocelyn Brooke's "The Military Orchid" with Richard Mabey's "Selected Writings" also on the book shelf.

The Military Orchid is A Grade. Are you reading the Trilogy or just the first one?

Brooke also wrote a book called The Flower in Season ("a book about wild flowers for those who like wild flowers") which is excellent.

Hadn't *planned* on reading beyond The Military Orchid but may well do.

The shift to writing about being in the army, in this, is incredible.

Just started Richard Jefferies' Wild Life In A Southern Country.

See these are coming up from Little Toller:

Adrian Bell - Apple Acre
Ian Niall - Fresh Woods, Pastures New
John Wyatt - The Shining Levels

all of which sound tempting.

Will possibly end up reading them all but any recommendations out of those three?

Sort of wish I hadn't started on Wild Life In A Southern Country - largely because Jefferies is happy to shoot the animals he has just been admiring.

Hello, yes! I am interested in Mabey's Beechcombings. What a delightful book that was. You're right about how crammed full of things it was, the sheer scale of ideas touched upon, how many different areas he took in - that it wasn't just a book about trees, it was a book about history and ecology and anthropology and art and even a bit of etymology thrown in, just for fun. It really was, for me, the kind of paragon of a book which purports to be about only one narrow subject (beeches) but ends up being about the whole panoply of human history instead.

I suppose my particular interest is more about the intersection of humans and nature - my ur-book for this kind of thing is Hoskins' Making of the English Landscape. (Found things like Lie of the Land by Ian Vince diverting recently, as well, even though that is ostensibly about geology, it's actually just about the whole of the landscape.)

Don't particularly like gardening books, though, they tend to be... hmm, a bit blokey. Don't want anything involving the observations men make out of their sheds. I suppose I like these things sweeping, but with good attention to the way that one can go from very fine plant to plant scale and zoom out to the whole panorama. Also no shooting things. At all, ever.

I meant to respond to your post wisely, Fizzles.

I'm still *stuck* on Shepherd's "The Living Mountain". I'm determined to finish it but it feels like hard work, particularly as it is only 100 pages or so.

I bought Powys' "Earth Memories" and might appear on this thread to talk about it but judging from previous experience might just whinge about finding it a slog ..

I meant to respond to your post wisely, Fizzles.

i really do think in cases like this it's the thought that counts.

Anyone buying the Richard Skelton book?

What's been great this year?

Feel like I've given up on/put aside more books than usual this year.

Looking forward to Marcus Sedgwick's "Snow" and Cheryl Tipp's "Sea Sounds" monographs in 2016, though.

And Amy Liptrot's "The Outrun".

Oh ... from the Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/05/best-nature-books-2015?CMP=share_btn_tw

(Made me intrigued about "Fish Ladder" and "Inglorious").

"The Outrun" is very good. Beautifully observed. Loved the chapter about ambergris (a version of which appeared on Caught By The River).

Also, really enjoying Fred Kitchen's "Brother to the Ox". What I've read so far is pretty much "farming memoir" though I think that changes.

May be of interest: http://richardjefferiessociety.co.uk/

The Outrun is seriously amazing but I'm obviously personally biased on that regard. It's one of those books where I didn't have to sugar-coat my reaction at all, but I thin I embarrassed Amy a little by how much I responded to it haha. :-/

Less than a month into the year ... I nominated it for the above.

Tempting:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/26/landskipping-painters-ploughmen-and-places-review-anna-pavord-constable-hardy

Just noticed Amy Liptrot has written an intro for RM Lockley's Dream Island.

Really enjoyed Kitchen's "Brother to the Ox" - it was very much a "read a chapter each night before sleep" sort of book. It was very matter of fact about the hardship of farming life, in a way that really worked.

Finally reading Gilbert White's "The Natural History of Selborne". Very much along the lines of "I saw a rare bird. It was beautiful. And then I shot it and preserved it in brandy".

Was quite tempted after reading this:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/15/britains-got-talons-the-writer-raised-on-raptors

Less so, after reading this:

http://markavery.info/2016/03/06/book-review-raptor-james-macdonald-lockhart/?platform=hootsuite

(I must confess I quite enjoyed the latter review as - despite the "But is it nature writing?" beefs - I often imagine that reviews of such books are those of friends writing about each other's work.)

"Do you ever have the sense that you're being marketed to so strongly that you just want to cross your arms across your chest, narrow your chest, and say "hmmmmm"?"

Strangely, I've just read Robert Seethaler's "A Whole Life" - the best book I've read in a long while, not a "nature book" and one that I thought I'd found fairly randomly (it was a local bookseller's favourite book of last year). I liked enough that once I'd finished it I Googled it and what comes up? It was a Robert Macfarlane "recommended holiday read" in The Guardian.

Also, can I just say I've always been a big fan?

Amy Liptrot's column should definitely be a book ... particularly loved the one about whale vomit.

Actually, a few of the columns could happily morph into books.

― djh, Wednesday, 17 October 2012 19:45 (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*stuffs great bonxie in mouth to stop from saying the really exciting thing*

Your book?

Just say it.

Ha! No.

My "nature reading" has stalled a bit. What've I missed?

Just read 'The Running Hare: The secret life of farmland'
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1109213/the-running-hare/
It's mostly great but I had to break my own rule about never commenting on books on Amazon after reading the exclusively 5 star reviews of it. It goes on a bit (lists of lost flowers comes off more as some kind of litany and just made me drift off) but more mystifyingly it suddenly lays into Monbiot and rewilding. Now, I have issues with both those as well but this is a book ABOUT REWILDING A FIELD for God's sake...the guy virtually forces hares to live in his field, and about the evils of agrochemical farming, I mean aren't him and Monbiot essentailly on the same side? Also I found myself being irritated by the way he seemed more like a weekend farmer than anything - instead of a second home he had a second field. Having said all this it is beautifully written and contains something of interest on every page. It made me more determined than ever to get out in the English countryside more. Worth having for sure.

Anyone buying the Richard Skelton book?

Just ordered it. Loved Crossings.

Oh sod it - I mean Landings...!

Strangely, I love the "Landings" album but have never read the accompanying book (although I have it), for some reason.

Enjoyed "Beyond The Fell Wall" and have been reading his poetry retrospective, "The Pale Ladder". Both are the kind of books you need to read in small doses - savour words and re-read paragraphs - rather than settle down for a long session.

I can't think what but I'm sure I've read something that put me off the Lewis-Stempel book. (If it wouldn't lesson anyone's enjoyment of the book) Having just read your review on Amazon and a review in the Guardian, what's his issue with Monbiot and how does he explain having hunted foxes and having sabbed fox hunts?

I was about to say I've never been convinced by Skelton's prose (if that's what it is) but I wonder if it was just that I'd had my Skelton fill and stopped reading and listening around the same time. Glancing at Landings, I can still feel the latent power in it. It vibrates and resonates in the same way as his music.

Nice thing on Annie Dillard in the latest LARB: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/thats-inspiration-rereading-annie-dillard/

I would say I'm far more moved by Skelton's recordings than his writing (though can find time for both).

Just pre-ordered RM Lockley's Dream Island in a moment of weakness (Had intended to read a pile of books before I bought anything else).

http://wainwrightprize.com/2016/06/30/the-wainwright-prize-2016-shortlist-revealed/

Common Ground, Rob Cowen (Windmill)

The Outrun, Amy Liptrot (Canongate)

Landmarks, Robert Macfarlane (Penguin)

The Moth Snowstorm, Michael McCarthy (John Murray)

The Fish Ladder, Katharine Norbury (Bloomsbury)

The Shepherd’s Life, James Rebanks (Penguin)

Now in its third year, the prize awards £5,000 annually to the work that best reflects renowned nature writer Alfred Wainwright’s core values of celebrating the great British outdoors.

This year’s shortlist draws a spotlight on the continued resurgence of nature and travel writing in the UK and the staggering breadth of personal issues explored through the genre.

Memoir features strongly, with Amy Liptrot’s experience of alcoholism and recovery explored through her wild Orkney homeland (The Outrun), Rob Cowen’s journey into parenthood set within his exploration of a square-mile of Yorkshire woodland (Common Ground), Katharine Norbury’s life spent walking Britain’s glittering rivers (The Fish Ladder), James Rebank’s account of life as a shepherd in the Lake District (A Shepherd’s Life), and Michael McCarthy’s moving memoir of childhood trauma that offers a rallying cry for protecting our environment (The Moth Snowstorm). Meanwhile, Robert Macfarlane rounds off the shortlist, earning his second shortlisting with his meditation on words and landscape (Landmarks).

http://www.commonground.org.uk/leaf/#

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/05/wainwright-prize-goes-to-amy-liptrots-searingly-honest-the-outrun

Did anyone read Monbiot's "How Did We Get into This Mess? : Politics, Equality, Nature"?

Hasn't seemed as prominent as "Feral"

Ned Trifle - have you seen there's a newly published Claire Leighton, "Country Matters"?

Richard Jefferies Society writing prize 2016:

Nominations for the 2016 award are now closed. The winner will be selected in May and announced on 3 June 2017. The long list under consideration is:

•The Outrun by Amy Liptrot
•Landskipping by Anna Pavord
•The Running Hare by John Lewis-Stempel
•Wild Kingdom by Stephen Moss.
•A Sky Full of Birds by Matt Merritt
•Rivers Run by Kevin Parr
•The Art of Falconry by Patrick Morel
•The Tree Climber’s Guide by Jack Cooke
•Nightingales in November by Mike Dilger
•Walking Through Spring by Graham Hoyland
•Ladders to Heaven by Mike Shanahan
•Six Facets of Light by Ann Wroe
•Island Home by Tim Winton
•The Remedies by Katharine Towers
•How to Read Water by Tristan Gooley
•The Wood for the Trees by Richard Fortey

Leighton's "Country Matters" not really doing it for me (though I loved "Four Hedges").

Quite enjoyed Horatio Clare's "Orison for a Curlew", about his search to see a slender-billed curlew ... particularly as he notes on the first page that he doesn't see one and it is probably extinct.

I stall on Gilbert White's "The Natural History of Selborne" but have picked it up again - I hadn't realised until flicking back through this thread that I started it over a year ago.

Not strictly a "nature" book but a combination of writing about an allotment and a memoir about growing up in the foster system but Allan Jenkins' Plot 29 is well worth a read.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/31/plot-29-a-memoir-by-allan-jenkins-review

Not strictly a book at all, but a lovely documentary on BBC2 about Helen Macdonald getting and training a new goshawk: Natural World, 2017-2018: 7. H is for Hawk: A New Chapter: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09b68wy

It treads some of the same fine, slightly mawkish, lines as the book but that's OK.

Any "river" book recommendations? It will be for a present for someone who potters in a canoe.

Weirdly, I haven't read any of this year's Wainwright Book Prize shortlist.

The Last Wilderness by Neil Ansell (Tinder Press)

Hidden Nature by Alys Fowler (Hodder & Stoughton)

Outskirts by John Grindrod (Sceptre)

The Dun Cow Rib by John Lister-Kaye (Canongate)

The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (Hamish Hamilton)

The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicolson (William Collins, HarperCollins)

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (Michael Joseph)

This is probably a bit shameless, but I've been writing this on and off for a few years; I stopped writing for various reasons (work, purpose) but put something up today:

https://somesmallcorner.co.uk/

Any nature book recommendations for pre-school children?

According to their Twitter account, a distributor handling Little Toller's books has gone into administration, losing them fairly horrendous amounts of money.

I think they'd appreciate purchases from their website, right now:

https://www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/

Anyone read Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life? (Sheldrake appears in Robert Macfarlane's Underlands.)

I'm a couple of chapters in. It's fascinating. Been reading his dad's The Science Delusion too, tangentially

Thanks or something. The bits in Underland are fascinating too - was intrigued if this translated into a good book of his own. Will buy!

Had a scan through this thread and wondered ... how did I actually find the time to do anything else?

"Amy Liptrot's column should definitely be a book" made me laugh, though.