The author is a proper botanist (see my review of a very different earlier book he co-authored) and he doesn’t live very far away from me – down the Nene Valley in a place where it is probably mostly called the ‘Neen’ whereas up here we call it the ‘Nenn’ but I have never met him.
This is a charming and lovely book based on local walks through the year from around now, when the Cuckoo’s song is first heard until they come back again the next year. Restricted to his own parish (I’ve worked out which one it is) the author set himself the task of restricting grumblings about wildlife losses to a minimum and simply (or complicatedly) enjoying what was there in front of him. At this time of year it is relatively easy to be joyful if the sun shines, the plants flower, the birds sing and the insects buzz around and right now I feel pretty happy too. But the author carries it off through the year by exploring, looking, learning.
It’s a very effective tactic as it frees the reader from wondering when the doom mongering might come along and it frees the author, by admitting there is doom to be mongered but just not here, not in this book, to be honestly enjoying the good things which nature has to offer. Simple, but effective.
As a result, and because the author is perceptive and writes well, this is a very enjoyable read. Is it escapism? Maybe a bit, but we all need that sometimes and at least one is escaping to nature rather than escaping from something nasty.
I enjoyed the year with Peter Stroh very much.
The cover? The cover and internal artwork are by Carry Akroyd and I am a fan so I’ll give it 9/10.
The Cuckoo Calls the Year by Peter Stroh is published by Merlin Unwin Books.
Buy this book direct from Blackwell’s – a proper bookshop (and I’ll get a little bit of money from them).
