Book Review: A Brush with Nature

This book offers a selection of Richard Mabey's writing from his BBC Wildlife magazine column. With the underlying theme of nature, Richard writes about various topics and they are organised into the following chapters: Roots, Wings, Leaves, Tracks, Images, Words, and Issues.

At first I struggled with this book. The writing seemed a little abstract, but it is likely to have been my current disconnect that was the issue. I soon got to grips with Richard's writing and enjoyed reading his ideas and opinions on various matters that I, myself, think about. The rants are intense, but so is his appreciation and love of nature. I'd never thought that we can be over bearing with conservation, but I'm beginning to understand that we can sometimes look after the species to the detriment to the ecosystem. Everything has it's day, then after a rise comes a fall. This is the same with species, which is why we have such wonderful and awe inspiring variations in nature. I think this is what Chris Packham meant when he spoke about the conservation of Pandas.

As with most naturalists, of whatever experience level, I have read Food for Free. Which is a wonderful collection of food that we can harvest on hedges and such like, along with various recipes and the history of them. I do feel, though, that this is so much more than that. This collection allows us to have a connection, however brief, with a man that has spent his life considering nature. This collection allows us to think about what he says, and whether we agree or not isn't the point. The point is that however much we feel we consider nature, we should sit back and think for a moment how we can appreciate it more.

Own or Loan: Loan
Read Again:  No
Recommend: Yes
Overall out of Five: 3