Nature Book Reader June 2020 - Flipbook - Page 13
Abram, is a compelling
exploration of what we have
lost, in terms of myth and
primitive culture. If I can
take it I re-read The Peregrine
by J.A. Baker, which among
many other things is a
beautiful love letter to an
alien species. But best of all is
John Clare’s The Shepherd’s
Calendar, a series of long
poems that take you month
by month through the year.
John Clare inhabited his
landscape and his writing
has the springy, from the
mud up, grown quality of the
natural world as it really is.
It’s teeming with life.
It’s full of weather and thick
Northamptonshire language
and flowers, birds, frogs,
hornets. Most of all
it reminds me of what it felt
like to be seven, live and
on the loose, in the world
of the woods.
Further Reading
The Pereguine
by J.A. Baker
The Spell Of
The Sensuous
by David Abram
