A beautifully lyrical collection of essays on the natural world in
Britain by the Guardian's country diary writer Paul Evans.
With a title taken from the 1940 Batsford book, this is nature writing
for the modern reader. It is a book both for those that live in the
country and those that don't, but experience nature every day through
brownfield edge lands, transport corridors, urban greenspace,
industrialised agriculture and fragments of ancient countryside. Evans
weaves historical, cultural and literary references into his writing,
ranging from TS Eliot to Bridget Riley, from Hieronymus Bosch to
Napoleon.
The essays include the The Weedling Wild, on the wildlife of the
wasteland: ragwort, rosebay willowherb, giant hogweed and the cinnabar
moth; Gardens of Light, about the creatures to be found under moonlight:
pipistrelle bats, lacewings and orb-weaver spider; The Flow, with tales
from the riverbank, estuaries and seas, including kingfisher, minnow,
otter and heron. The Commons looks at meadowland with a human footprint,
with the Adonis blue butterfly, horseshoe vetch, skylark, black knapweed
and the six-belted clearwing moth. Other chapters look at the wildlife
returned to Britain, such as wild boar and polecats, and finds nature in
and around landscapes as varied as a domestic garden or a wild moor. The
book ends with an alphabetical bestiary, an idiosyncratic selection of
British wildlife based on the author's personal encounters.
