Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A touching remembrance of Roger Deakin, 5 Feb 2009
Roger Deakin's notebooks have been lovingly put together into a year's diary. It is just that - observations, memories, comments - full of wisdom, knowledge and demonstrating his overwhelming love of the natural world around him. His sad, untimely death makes this book something really to be cherished.
|
|
|
26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
After water and wood: notes, 20 Nov 2008
A nice hardback, with a good feel to the paper and binding. And this is just the kind of book you would want in hardback, as you will probably dip in for many years to come.
These are rather spare, often unconnected musings. Unconnected in the sense that, unlike in his "Waterlog" or "Wildwood", there is no particular theme. But as he is a pretty holistic person, there are links and mental ley-lines all over the place, so the musings flow into each other smoothly, like water off a spinning ball. It is nice to see the links to his other books: swimming in the moat, memories of Kyrgyzystan.
After water and wood I find myself looking for the third leg of a trilogy, a common theme. That is not there. He comes back to water, and to wood, and to many other subjects; so maybe the third leg of his trilogy is thought about all, and about All. "Looking, just looking, is all we have to do, to see the essential truth." And we get an insight in his looking, through his eye, into his fellow feeling for all living things, into his consideration for others.
My only (very small) niggle is that occasionally I feel the notes for several years have been mixed up, which is slightly uncomfortable. But overall these notes flow well, and they are very enjoyable. He is an excellent, natural writer, and I recommend this book for your pleasure - and for your thoughtfulness, too.
And it's nice to see him is searching for Jefferies' old book "Bevis" - on Amazon!
|
|
|
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Notes from Walnut Tree Farm, 30 Jan 2009
A book to be dipped into rather than read in one sitting. Worth reading for his keen observations of the natural world around him and his own depth of knowledge. I found some of his opinions naive and even innocent ( though there's no harm in that), and there was the uncomfortable feeling that I was reading stuff that an author of Deakin's ability would never have published were he alive. Indeed, if you're coming to Roger Deakin for the first time, I would highly recommend that you get "Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees" instead which is a beautiful book.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|