Nature Book Reader June 2020 - Flipbook - Page 44
A Nature Book Reader
GARRET FALLON
Garrett Fallon is founding editor of Fallon’s Angler, a fishing magazine
championing long-form angling writing.
The Outdoor Handbook Hamlyn
I believe I pinched this book
from my elder brother when
he departed for boarding
school. It has his initials on
the fore edge, yet my name
and address are carefully
inscribed inside. However it
found its way into my hands,
it remains on my bookshelf to
this day.
I grew up in a rural
household surrounded by
books, but this is the first that
I called my own, despite its
nefarious beginnings.
It was the bible for an
innocuous pre-teen—a
nowhere boy from the back of
beyond—intent on exploring
every inch of the surrounding
countryside to push his own
boundaries.
I devoured each chapter
and immediately put it into
practice—hiking, camping,
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fishing, conservation, fossil
hunting, bird watching—all
fanning the flames of a
burning passion for nature
that still smoulders nicely,
nearly forty years later.
Something in the
gentle instructional style
engrossed me, embellished
with evocative illustrations
echoing the ubiquitous
Ladybird books of the time,
and I was always learning.
But its most important
gift was that it shifted my
focus from the environment
immediately around me,
as it subtly panned out to
reveal the wider world.
Initial chapters introduced
me to the Great Outdoors,
and advised me how to exist
within and alongside it, but
the final few chapters helped
me appreciate that I was no
