The Nature Reader

(It was the essays I bought, though, not the poetry. Hope this wasn't a mistake.)

Still got The Old Ways on my shelf unread, really looking forward to starting it now :)

I should just start a thread of outright Robert Macfarlane love.

Just noticed that Richard Skelton/Autumn Richardson (The "classical" music you buy from Boomkat (2010): a thread to discuss Sylvain Chauveau, Johann Johannsson, Peter Broderick, Olafur Arnalds and others) get a mention in The Old Ways.

Edward Thomas is my man!

"And so it is alone and for themselves that the beeches rise up in carven living stone and expand in a green heaven for the song of the woodwren, pouring out pearls like water."

See ... that does nothing for me.

Mabey's The Unofficial Countryside:

http://vimeo.com/46869854

Loved most of "The Old Ways". Would definitely make me want to read some Edward Thomas (if I didn't find "The South Country" so unreadable.

I just got done with Thomas Eisner's For Love of Insects, a scientific memoir that goes into beautifully non-technical detail about his experiments in insect chemical adaptations.

I've also taken out a copy of Waterlog, very much looking forward to it.

Waterlog is incredible. It made me want to swim in rivers.

Starting to wish I'd ordered a copy of Holloway.

If you really want Holaweg, look on Thomblr, I'm sure that one of the more obsessive RH fans has PDF'd it by now.

Does Nick Papadimitriou fit in here? "Scarp" looks quite interesting.

Oh god I am reading that RIGHT NOW and I keep wondering if it fits or not, because it's way more psychogeography than nature writing, but there is a lot of nature writing in it.

Either way, I am finding it a fascinating and fantastic book, though deeply strange. But strange in all the ways I love. So I can't decide if I love it or hate it?

I have to confess, I would like to walk the Broomway.

I think it's impossible to read that book and not want to walk The Broomway.

We should have ILX Broomway Walk and Possible Tide Death FAP at the next convenient low tide.

Anyone pick up any of the (Macfarlane-introduced) Collins Nature Library books?

https://twitter.com/LittleToller/status/248803543090352128/photo/1

^ new (old) Clare Leighton.

Reading Macfarlane's The Wild Places and Niall's Fresh Woods, Pastures New. Reading the former when I want to feel awake, the latter when I don't. Niall's book is a curious one: another writer whose initial interactions with nature seem to have been shooting it.

More on the Leighton book:

http://littletoller.co.uk/?p=5599

Kenneth Allsop: http://littletoller.co.uk/2012/10/the-cutting-of-the-cherry/

Macfarlane and Chris Watson 12": http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2012/10/rivertones-2-the-sea-road/

Oh, I did see that. I wanted to listen to the Soundcloud but I was a bit taken aback by the sound of MacFarlane's voice? I think I expected him to sound weather-burred and creaky like an old sea captain telling tales around the fire, but his voice sounds unexpectedly like an over enthusiastic sixth former.

Mostly I got obsessed with the Nick Hayes artwork. Caught By The River always have the most exquisite engravings and illustrations and things.

I keep getting completely sucked into the CBTR site. My friend Amy (who I stayed with in Orkney a few weeks ago) does a column for them. There was some talk she was going to turn her column into a book? When she does, that will be the most amazing thing ever and I will be all over this thread stanning for it.

I am still persisting with the Edward Thomas book, The South Country. It's odd because I really am enjoying it, and I love his writing, but it is very... dense. It's quite slow going. Partly because reading it is so evocative, and I will read a little bit, and the imagery will send me into a little reverie and my mind starts wandering off in memory through landscapes I've encountered that are like the ones he is describing. Which is good and wonderful, and I'm glad that it does that, because it captures the things I like best about country walks and sends me back to happy memories. But it does mean I'm getting through the book very slowly.

Beautiful illustrations, too. By someone called Eric Fitch Daglish. They remind me oddly of the engravings in The House At Green Knowe, the same kind of delicate scratchiness to them.

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.

On the last few pages of Ian Niall's Fresh Woods & Pastures New. Another one that featured too much killing/poaching for me to really enjoy and which started to feel like a chore. Have Henry Williamson's Tarka the Otter on the bookshelf and have ordered the new (old) Claire Leighton but any other recommendations?

Never did see Holaweg but walk past the printers to work everyday and keep meaning to say hello.

Not quite in the mood for the grimness of Tarka ... recommendations appreciated. Maybe I should try The South Country again ...

Any good books about nature/the coast?

The Clare Leighton book looks lovely. Her etchings are right good.

The chapter in Robert MacFarlane's The Wild Places on Roger Deakin's death ... made me feel sad.

I think it's having a new camera that has had me looking at things like trees more closely than in a while. Been fascinated by the presumably fractal array of growth of twigs out of the bodies of older trees. Presumably so that they can feed from as many directions as possible, like presumably each new twig is there to grow a leaf from to reap chlorophyll from sunlight or whatever. Particularly interesting when you see a wild array of twigs from all parts of what presumably had looked like a dead tree for a couple of years.

I read a book a few years back that a girlfriend had about a guy who had set up a natural tree plantation/wildlife reserve in Canada somewhere. fascinating book, showed the patterns of the way trees grew branches in tandem with each other among other stuff. Would love to read it again

Probably more likely to be autumn divesting said twigs of the leaves that have made them less visible up to now though.

New (non-letterpress) version of Holloway out in May 2013. Print from Holloway now on sale at Stanley Donwood's site (slowlydownward.com).

About two thirds of the way through Tarka the Otter. How was this ever considered a children's book?

Tarka was an odd one. Horrible to read at some points and with a curious ambivalence about otter hunting. The introduction suggests that Williamson hero-worshipped his brother in law who was involved with the local hunt. You never get the sense that the hunt is being celebrated but nor do you get the sense that it is being overtly condemned (although it's difficult to read about an otter being hounded for 10 hours and believe this is a good thing, in any respect).

Is Adrian Bell's Corduroy any good?

Revived for recommendations (Xmas book voucher to spend).

Loved JL Carr's "A Month In The Country", although its possibly more accurately described as rural rather than nature writing. Bemused it was made into a Colin Firth film.

Have bought Olivia Lang's To The River ("gentle, wise and riddling," according to Robert Macfarlane) and Sebald's The Rings of Saturn.

New Richard Mabey: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/15/richard-mabey-unpredictable-power-nature

Second hand book shop purchases:

Fraser Darling - Wild Country
WH Hudson - Hampshire Days
WH Hudson - Birds and Green Places
RM Lockley - The Way to an Island
Henry Williamson - Tales of Moorland & Estuary

Nice(ly written) review:

http://www.newstatesman.com/sci-tech/2013/02/reviewed-field-notes-hidden-city-esther-woolfson

Macfarlane in the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/15/robert-macfarlane-household-rogue-male

Exhibition/e-book of Macfarlane's Broomway chapter;

http://www.silt-exhibition.com/

Not quite the right thread but it is available in book form:

http://www.campdengallery.co.uk/catalogues/kjackson1.pdf

This was very good. Some of the pictures prompted a strange sense of "This is okay" and then seconds later I'd see them a different light and suddenly it was "Wow, this is fucking wonderful".

New version of Holloway out next week.

There's also been a short run version of Rogue Male with a Stanley Donwood cover.

Anyone read Hoskins' The Making of the English Landscape?

The intro to Hoskins book: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/11/rereading-making-english-landscape?INTCMP=SRCH

http://thequietus.com/articles/12233-holloway-dan-richards-robert-macfarlane

Glugged Holloway like pop. Should probably have savoured it more.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/23/making-book-lump-lead-holloway

Currently reading Hoskins' The Making of the English Landscape (at home) and Henry Williamson's Tales of Moorland and Estuary (carry around in my coat pocket and read at opportune moments).