I’ve been looking forward to reading this book and that feeling was justified by the pleasure it gave me. Most of the pleasure was because this is a well-written book by someone who seems to be an interesting man with whom I’d be very happy to share a few pints at some stage. He is a former soldier and a current hedge-layer and unlike quite a few who would regard themselves as country folk Negus clearly knows quite a bit about wildlife – that much is pretty clear from his words here. And he knows about hedgelaying, and a bit about farming too. Excellent! But part of my pleasure was, I have to admit, seeing his badly-aimed swipes at wildlife charities, government, academics and people who live in towns. This is all good fun, and will go down well with other country folk, but I didn’t notice a blow that was any better than glancing.
There is, you might not be surprised, quite a lot about hedge-laying in these pages. Laying and other forms of hedge management involve skilled tasks and although people go on hedge-laying courses I’m not planning to learn how to do something that entails being cold, wet and scratched when there are people like the author who will do it much better. There are plenty of mentions of billhooks (I wonder how the author says that word? Here in Northants, the ‘h’ is not pronounced and the word rhymes with ‘bullocks’), pleachers, stakes and binds. A well laid hedgerow is a joy to see, particular if you haven’t had to lay it or to pay for it, and I’d agree with the author that there is plenty of scope for wildlife enhancement through more and better management of existing and relict hedges.
We are taken to a series of East Anglian farms and told how their hedges have been managed, something about their wildlife and some things about the farmers, their philosophy and their businesses. This works well. He even visited the RSPB’s Hope Farm and found some common ground with the team there – it would have been fun to hear more.
This book is fairly tribal in its character with swipes at lots of groups with whom it seems as though the author has little contact. The author seems to have an issue with land-owning wildlife charities having access to the same land-management grants available to rich and poor individual landowners irrespective of their understanding of nature. I think it would be difficult and foolish to exclude such groups and he must have been shown real successes at the RSPB’s Hope Farm.
Negus and I have not met, but he is kind enough to write that he has a sneaking regard for me – I feel the same about him. It would have been a token of his admiration had Negus not written that I wrote “they [farmers] are fundamentally anti-environment” when I actually wrote “Often the blockage is the National Farmers Union (NFU). [Paragraph break] I’ve come to see the NFU as a fundamentally anti-environment organisation.” (and you can check here). It is a significant difference in meaning and not an accidental difference. When I saw how I was quoted, even though it was from 14 years ago, I knew that was a misquote because then, for years before while working for the RSPB and for years after, I, and RSPB staff, have not put all farmers in the same category but it’s fair enough to have a go at a farming union which is a blockage, practically always, to measures that will help wildlife. It’s enlightening, I feel, to read Peter Kendall’s remarks quoted in the Guardian back then too – click here.
It’s a pity that the book lacks an index and any references – it makes it difficult for the reader to check things like whether quotes are accurate.
That small matter aside, this is a very readable and entertaining book. The author writes very well and he knows and understands a thing or two about wildlife.
The cover? I like it a lot and I’d give it 9/10.
Words from the Hedge: a hedgelayer’s view of the countryside by Richard Negus is published by Unbound.
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