Wild Lines

The reboot worked! 

Being early is a rare event for me. I was so early indeed, that I was almost late because of the need to pop out to get a drink and a bit of food to sustain me before the show started.

Hosted at The Leeds Library, it was the first of a programme of talks and readings and panel sessions constituting WildLines, a celebration of nature writing. Tonight's event was a discussion entitled "Nature On The Page: Wild Writing Then And Now". The four writers/naturalists and the chair were all excellent and the discussion covered a lot of ground, prompted by questions from the audience. 

The genre is so wide that the panel found it impossible to define what nature writing is, then or now. I got to thinking about the books I've most enjoyed and realised that my favourites are those that read as well as the best literature and also as the best science, presenting amazing fact with the most beautiful prose. I was reminded of Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez, which I read thirty years ago and which left me in total awe. Perhaps that is the most important role to be served by nature writing, to leave the reader in awe of the natural world and to offer a feeling of reverence and kinship in the process.

The discussion made me realise how much I've left this genre alone, for a long time now. For so many years my life was completely absorbed with work and family, so when I found time to read, it was invariably either fiction or physics. I recently started reading The Seabird's Cry by Adam Nicolson. The poetry of the writing combined with the intimate knowledge and research - revealing astonishing fact - can only leave the reader in awe. The book consists of ten seabird biographies. I'm working my way through them slowly, getting to know each bird personally. The next time I see one, my experience will be enriched beyond measure.

It's the case with both these books that I want to share them with friends and family, offering them as Christmas presents. I asked the panel which books they felt the same way about. The two that emerged with the most passion were both written some time ago. I've had to go order them on the strength of how they were described. They are The Peregrine by J.A.Baker and A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold.

Knowing there are so many nature lovers here on blip, I thought it worth sharing my favourites and those of the panel tonight. Does anyone have any others they'd like to share, books of nature writing that inspired that sense of awe before the natural world, books that I need in my now growing collection?