Book Review
Reviewed by Paula
Notes from Walnut Tree Farm by Roger Deakin.
Illustrated by David Holmes, this book was first published by Hamish Hamilton in October 2008 hardback (224 pages), my version was a Penguin Books paperback, published in 2009 (309 pages including the notes section).
This is book is a collection of notes and observations made by Roger Deakin, which are predominantly centred around his home at Walnut Tree Farm. He covers a wide range of themes, including wildlife, wild swimming, the weather, poetry and art, agriculture, skating, camping, walking, and cycling. He encourages the reader to really look, from seeing the minutiae to exploring the landscape and wider world. He provides a real sense of place as he notes his daily activities, his thoughts and observations.
He makes us understand the breadth and scale of nature from his observations of an ant walking across his desk to reflecting that his “house was once an acorn”.
If we don’t really look, we will miss so much so we need to “look beneath the surface, to inhabit that strange land”. Reminding us “As Thoreau said in Walden, heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
Seeing the connections is an important theme that runs through the book. From how he questions how to protect the local common, in his view this requires a holistic approach and that everything is interconnected. It is “a single organic entity” not just a series of lanes and greens. That there is a need to see it not just from the human perspective but from the needs of the wildlife that inhabit it, otherwise we risk destroying much of what we wish to protect.
This connection with nature is also important for our wellbeing, as nature can provide a much needed refuge. Here he also references Freud, “The pattern of every day lives is repetition.” That repetition whether by walking past tree after tree in a wood or watching the waves on the sea, nature with its repetition can be “a constantly reassuring experience”.
The book is divided up chronologically across the calendar year. Which means that you could read this seasonally month-by-month. As the notes are taken from notebooks written over a 6 year period the notes can be quite eclectic within a date, taking a measured pace when reading and take a brief pause between these can help avoid what can otherwise feel like a jump between themes for those quick readers like myself.
This book was an easy read that encourages you to pay attention, to enable you to see and notice the little things that are going on around you. So, stop and pause, and take time to look, and don’t forget to look both up and down not just straight ahead.