Sunday book review – England’s Green by David Matless

An interesting read – perhaps more so for those of us who have lived through the whole of this period than youngsters – but maybe not.

I got on much better with this book from the moment I decided not to take it too seriously but just enjoy the ride. There is something a bit odd about choosing a title which is ambiguous (is that apostrophe a possessive or does it just signal a missing ‘i’?) and then celebrating that in some early paragraphs of the book, and there is other quirkiness in these pages.

It’s a pretty ambitious subtitle – ‘Nature and culture since the 1960s‘. What, all of it? Of course not and so we leap from instance to instance in what I initially found quite an irritating way until I relaxed into enjoying the examples as though they were a very strange assortment of sweets from a sweet shop.

The introduction is very good – a discussion of the maypole and events at Wellow, Nottinghamshire and then a quick survey of sites and issues within a five-mile radius encompassing Laxton with its open field system, the Major Oak of Sherwood forest and Center Parcs. I enjoyed that very much, and could imagine a whole book where that approach is used and expanded with a variety of locations dotted across the UK. That would be fun to write or compile.

There are passages, some whole chapters, which deal with farming, nature, climate, rewilding, mystery and folklore and a final chapter which looks back from a fairly distant future. All are well worth reading.

I enjoyed being reminded of The Wombles, The Good Life and Trumpton although I’m not sure what  the memories of them did for my understanding of England’s green, but they made me smile. No mention of Attenborough (Sir David) except to note that he opened a visitor centre at a site which shares his name, no mention of Jonny Morris, the Really Wild Show or Countryfile. The rise of the non-governmental organisations in terms of number and combined membership is absent. But then, the potential scope of the book is so huge that it is pointless to indicate omissions as any number of authors would take a different route, stopping off at different cultural locations across this vast landscape.

An interesting read from which I emerged being reminded, amused but not really moved or feeling better informed.

There are too many low quality photographs.

The cover? Very appropriate style, attractive and not bad content. I’d give it 9/10.

England’s Green: nature and culture since the 1960s by David Matless is published by Reaktion Books

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