Recently read (well, in 2018!)
I thought I would start by listing some books I have really enjoyed reading recently. I have been going through a phase of reading books about the British countryside and wildlife: as follows:
Claxton by Mark Cocker: the wonderful diary of the countryside and its plants, animals, weather, in a small village in Norfolk. A relaxing and often joyful read, highly evocative of the landscape and big skies that dominate this part of the world.
The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane: a cross between diary, literature review and in some cases what feels like poetry, MacFarlane takes a deep look at pathways - on land and at sea, mostly in the UK, but also wider afield. He describes his personal journeys through them, carefully crafting descriptions of place, people, feelings and moods and the meaning of what he is experiencing and lacing it through with literary flashbacks and comparisons to writers whose work has given him joy, inspiration or just food for thought. This is a more involving and intellectually demanding read than others listed here, but rewarding nonetheless. Something to watch with MacFarlane is that he refers back to many of the same authors and books in his other works and if you read several of his books, as I have done, you do wonder whether he might be taking just a few too many liberties with his readership through the degree of repetition you will experience - even though the settings are different.
Meadowlands by John Lewis Stempel: is a farmer in Herefordshire whose land, while quintessentially English, is overshadowed by the brooding presence of the Black Mountains that mark the boundary between England and Wales. I found this feeling of being at a boundary - at the edge of something and the start of something quite different, and unexplored, just beyond - a fascinating contextual backdrop to what is a really lovely book. Lewis Stempel uses short diary passages to lead us gently through the life of an old fashioned and now all too rare meadow through the year. The tale becomes a close up look at the lives of insects, animals, birds, plants and the changing weather in that small space, with occasional forays into the adjacent river and fields beyond. While Stempel is a passionate conservationist, he is also a farmer and a pragmatist, quite willing to go out and shoot his supper. The passage where he recounts the death of one of his redpoll cattle is very moving.
Running Hares by John Lewis Stempel: Lewis Stempel - who we met in Meadowlands - is appalled by the astonishing reduction in wildlife of all forms that the English countryside has quietly witnessed over the last 20 years driven by more and more intensive and invasive farming methods. The totem for the book is the hare - once abundant, now absent or scarce in so many parts of the country. The book is the story of his attempt over the course of a year to try to recreate from scratch, on some land that he leases for a year, and using old traditional methods of land husbandry, the type of wildlife-rich farmland that was widespread in Britain until relatively recently, but is now all but gone. He has to work hard for his results, and things do not always go to plan, but he is not disappointed and this book - as well as just being a beautiful read - is about, in effect, how little effort it could take, if only we could try, to win back our countryside for the animals and plants that used to thrive in it and for us also.
Claxton by Mark Cocker: the wonderful diary of the countryside and its plants, animals, weather, in a small village in Norfolk. A relaxing and often joyful read, highly evocative of the landscape and big skies that dominate this part of the world.
The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane: a cross between diary, literature review and in some cases what feels like poetry, MacFarlane takes a deep look at pathways - on land and at sea, mostly in the UK, but also wider afield. He describes his personal journeys through them, carefully crafting descriptions of place, people, feelings and moods and the meaning of what he is experiencing and lacing it through with literary flashbacks and comparisons to writers whose work has given him joy, inspiration or just food for thought. This is a more involving and intellectually demanding read than others listed here, but rewarding nonetheless. Something to watch with MacFarlane is that he refers back to many of the same authors and books in his other works and if you read several of his books, as I have done, you do wonder whether he might be taking just a few too many liberties with his readership through the degree of repetition you will experience - even though the settings are different.
Meadowlands by John Lewis Stempel: is a farmer in Herefordshire whose land, while quintessentially English, is overshadowed by the brooding presence of the Black Mountains that mark the boundary between England and Wales. I found this feeling of being at a boundary - at the edge of something and the start of something quite different, and unexplored, just beyond - a fascinating contextual backdrop to what is a really lovely book. Lewis Stempel uses short diary passages to lead us gently through the life of an old fashioned and now all too rare meadow through the year. The tale becomes a close up look at the lives of insects, animals, birds, plants and the changing weather in that small space, with occasional forays into the adjacent river and fields beyond. While Stempel is a passionate conservationist, he is also a farmer and a pragmatist, quite willing to go out and shoot his supper. The passage where he recounts the death of one of his redpoll cattle is very moving.
Running Hares by John Lewis Stempel: Lewis Stempel - who we met in Meadowlands - is appalled by the astonishing reduction in wildlife of all forms that the English countryside has quietly witnessed over the last 20 years driven by more and more intensive and invasive farming methods. The totem for the book is the hare - once abundant, now absent or scarce in so many parts of the country. The book is the story of his attempt over the course of a year to try to recreate from scratch, on some land that he leases for a year, and using old traditional methods of land husbandry, the type of wildlife-rich farmland that was widespread in Britain until relatively recently, but is now all but gone. He has to work hard for his results, and things do not always go to plan, but he is not disappointed and this book - as well as just being a beautiful read - is about, in effect, how little effort it could take, if only we could try, to win back our countryside for the animals and plants that used to thrive in it and for us also.
Comments
Post a Comment