Scan barcode
A review by trsr
The Peregrine: The Hill of Summer & Diaries: The Complete Works of J. A. Baker by J.A. Baker
5.0
A superb piece of nature writing: among the finest descriptions I've read of farm and forest, wader and warbler, sea and sky, hawk and hobby. Baker writes of British countryside and its birds and other wildlife in words that seem to immerse the reader in the location, in the eyes and body of the swooping falcon, in the whispering pines, in the hunting owl sailing over the landscape. Many passages about the peregrines, hobbies, and sparrowhawks are simply amazing.
This is not a book, however, for someone wondering 'what is he getting at'. There is no larger narrative, no storyline. This is a diary of observation, a perceptive detailing of nature that may appeal to those who like the music of nature and the cadence of good writing.
It is the voice Baker spending his days roaming on foot or bicycle or boat to recounting what he has seen and how he has seen. As he writes: "My life is here, where soon the larks will sing again, and there is a hawk above. One wishes only to go forward, deeper into the summer land, journeying from lark-song to lark-song, passing through the dark realm of the owls, the fox-holdings, the badger-shires, out into the brilliant winter dominion, the sea-bleak world of the hawks."
This is not a book, however, for someone wondering 'what is he getting at'. There is no larger narrative, no storyline. This is a diary of observation, a perceptive detailing of nature that may appeal to those who like the music of nature and the cadence of good writing.
It is the voice Baker spending his days roaming on foot or bicycle or boat to recounting what he has seen and how he has seen. As he writes: "My life is here, where soon the larks will sing again, and there is a hawk above. One wishes only to go forward, deeper into the summer land, journeying from lark-song to lark-song, passing through the dark realm of the owls, the fox-holdings, the badger-shires, out into the brilliant winter dominion, the sea-bleak world of the hawks."