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We are all wild. It's just that civilisation keeps getting in the way. And the more civilised we become, the more we need the wild: wild places, wild creatures, and wild experiences. As every one who has patted a dog, smelled a rose, taken a walk, or even had a drink in the garden well knows, humans have a soul-deep need for non-human forms of life. This book is about pushing our birthright of wildness just that little bit further. In "How to be Wild", Barnes takes us on a journey through a year, from one raucous spring to the next - with sparrows and flying squirrels, blackbirds and elephants, badgers, butterflies and mosquitoes, as his companions. And again and again, in myriad different ways, he helps us to realise an essential truth: that by enjoying the wild world, by saving the wild world, by seeking to understand the wild world, our own lives become richer and more satisfying. That is what being wild means.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A yearning for us to appreciate the beauty of the natural landscape all around us is persuasive in contemporary writing at the moment. What's most impressive about this new from of nature -lit to give it a grubby media title- is how blindingly erudite, literate and poetic most of it is Robert McFarlane's brilliant "The Wild Places" and to some extent Mark Cockers tremendous "Crow Country" are clarion calls to the sedentary masses to get off their arses and discover the splendour of some of the places around them , many of which are almost literally on their doorstep .
The latest of these is Simon Barnes How To be Wild and as seems to be the case almost casually with these type of books the author in his search for the essential meaning and understanding of our affinity with nature ahs written a book that vibrates with poetic allure and eloquent resonance. In other words it's quite superbly written and as Barnes lies in bed ill at the books start he queries his alienation from nature and his affiliation with most of the human race where" I was too much taken up my own small problems, my own small consolations". And then he sets out to do something about it and that the wild world will not become "A place I hoped vaguely to visit some time again soon."
What is refreshing to some extent about How To Be wild is it is not just an exhortation for us to go yomping off into the countryside but just as much a plea for us to notice what is happening around us everyday, even as we go about our daily business. To use our eyes, and ears more , to revel in our senses and pick up on the things that nature revolves around every minute of every day. Not to be too big-headed about this but this is something I have always been attuned to and its amazing what you can see if you pay attention . A stand off between a cat and a heron on the banks of a fishing dam near my house was as gladiatorial as any film involving Russell Crowe.
The book is arranged as a sequence of pointed seasonal observations alternating between Barnes home in Suffolk and the plains of Africa which are Barnes real passion. Barnes is of course hugely fervent about birds but he can get as excited about whooper swans near his home as he can about some exotic specimen in a far flung place. His description of the swan encounter wonderfully encapsulates what is so special about writers like Barnes:" It was the quintessential moment of wildness: that from my house, from my own place, such wild angels should pass by, sounding their wild angel trumpets, and stirring the wild heart of the tame horses beneath them: and my wild heart with it.'
Another great book about nature in a great year for books about nature. Barnes though does not hanker after a return to some pastoral idyll but rather concludes that mans present power over nature has made him more aware of how fragile its majesty really is. Or as he rather magnificently puts it 'If you ever wish to be astonished, take any small speck of life at random, and look, or listen, or learn just half a fact. Each scrap of life is more astonishing than we suppose: more astonishing than we can suppose.'
The latest of these is Simon Barnes How To be Wild and as seems to be the case almost casually with these type of books the author in his search for the essential meaning and understanding of our affinity with nature ahs written a book that vibrates with poetic allure and eloquent resonance. In other words it's quite superbly written and as Barnes lies in bed ill at the books start he queries his alienation from nature and his affiliation with most of the human race where" I was too much taken up my own small problems, my own small consolations". And then he sets out to do something about it and that the wild world will not become "A place I hoped vaguely to visit some time again soon."
What is refreshing to some extent about How To Be wild is it is not just an exhortation for us to go yomping off into the countryside but just as much a plea for us to notice what is happening around us everyday, even as we go about our daily business. To use our eyes, and ears more , to revel in our senses and pick up on the things that nature revolves around every minute of every day. Not to be too big-headed about this but this is something I have always been attuned to and its amazing what you can see if you pay attention . A stand off between a cat and a heron on the banks of a fishing dam near my house was as gladiatorial as any film involving Russell Crowe.
The book is arranged as a sequence of pointed seasonal observations alternating between Barnes home in Suffolk and the plains of Africa which are Barnes real passion. Barnes is of course hugely fervent about birds but he can get as excited about whooper swans near his home as he can about some exotic specimen in a far flung place. His description of the swan encounter wonderfully encapsulates what is so special about writers like Barnes:" It was the quintessential moment of wildness: that from my house, from my own place, such wild angels should pass by, sounding their wild angel trumpets, and stirring the wild heart of the tame horses beneath them: and my wild heart with it.'
Another great book about nature in a great year for books about nature. Barnes though does not hanker after a return to some pastoral idyll but rather concludes that mans present power over nature has made him more aware of how fragile its majesty really is. Or as he rather magnificently puts it 'If you ever wish to be astonished, take any small speck of life at random, and look, or listen, or learn just half a fact. Each scrap of life is more astonishing than we suppose: more astonishing than we can suppose.'
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An engaging and easy to read journal about the delight that can be found in the natural world around us. A world we often miss due to the hurly-burly and distractions of everyday life.
OK, so Barnes dips in and out of his African wildlife experiences, the places and nature he's encountered whilst travelling for his employer. But they serve to pleasantly distract and add counterpoint to his observations of British wildlife in Suffolk, Cornwall and elsewhere, in the context of Durrell, Narnia, Test Match cricket and Minsmere, to name but a few.
The style is that of journal entries-or blog posts- which make this book easily digestible. Moreover it's well written maintains a pace that keeps you turning the page, keen to read more of Barnes's views and insights.
Read it. Then leave the iPod at home next time you venture out, and `go wild'.
OK, so Barnes dips in and out of his African wildlife experiences, the places and nature he's encountered whilst travelling for his employer. But they serve to pleasantly distract and add counterpoint to his observations of British wildlife in Suffolk, Cornwall and elsewhere, in the context of Durrell, Narnia, Test Match cricket and Minsmere, to name but a few.
The style is that of journal entries-or blog posts- which make this book easily digestible. Moreover it's well written maintains a pace that keeps you turning the page, keen to read more of Barnes's views and insights.
Read it. Then leave the iPod at home next time you venture out, and `go wild'.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is fantastic! The author talks us through his personel philosophy of nature and its importance to humans. The examples range from the exotic (Zambia) to the very local (birds seen from his garden). It is a very convincing thesis. We need the wild! Not at all preachy - this book tries to convert by example - not by threat. Most important of all is its note of optimism rather than doom and gloom that so often permeates environmental books today.
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