The Tired Gardener

John Aitchison is known to many BBC Springwatch viewers for his thoughtfully narrated and visually stunning wildlife films. In this book he tells stories from behind the camera of his life as a wildlife photographer. I couldn't put this one down, especially when he's in an Arctic hut with a polar bear knocking at the door.

John Clare, who lived from 1793-1864, was one of England's greatest poets. In this sequence of poems he describes the countryside he lived in from his perspective as the son of a Northamptonshire labourer. This was at a time when common lands were being enclosed and the agricultural revolution was transforming the world as he knew it. It may be a lost world, but the people seem strangely familiar and you can feel the nip in the air as he describes a rural winter.

John Lewis-Stemple set out to restore a barren field using traditional husbandry over a period of twelve months. His ultimate goal was to create a habitat where hares would return to breed. He paints wonderful word pictures of the field's transformation, as well as his own. This is a story of human as well as natural growth and is a joy to read.

This is the coffee table version of a longer text and well worth the money to get lost in the forest of images. The author is a forester, who came to see his work as more then mere lumber for sale, and began investigating the science of forests.
What he describes is an extraordinarily complex and beautiful network of life, in which trees nurture each other and communicate through sound and scent. This is a book that will leave you itching to share what you have just learned.

Lewis-Stempl’s books are extraordinary love letters to nature in which he approaches his theme from every possible angle. Still Water. The Deep Life of the Pond begins with a beautiful sensory account of swimming in his own pond on a hot summer day. From here he ripples out into an exploration of the other ponds in his life, their natural history and their history, their origins, purpose and uses, threats, decline and deaths. In cycling through the seasons the author manages to combine hard science and historical research with poetry and his own beautiful prose. This is a genuinely deep dive into the subject and a wonderful way to get lost in nature when the elements are keeping you indoors.