- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (5 Sep 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099283662
- ISBN-13: 978-0099283669
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 504,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Exquisitely written... Consistently gripping...After reading this terrific book your feelings about any humble area of lawn will have altered' Daily Mail
Product Description
Grass grows almost everywhere. To most of us it is a common everyday thing, scarcely worth mention. Yet its influence on the life and character of an island people has been more profound that of the seas around our shores. As Britain's first farmers herded their cattle across the lonely hills, they made a momentous discovery. Working with stone axes to clear the ancient forest they found that in its place grew grass. For more than five thousand years Britain's grasslands have brought wealth and prosperity, building a powerful overseas trade. They fed the fast-growing towns of Tudor Britain, were the foundation of modern capitalism and, with parks and lawns, they civilised the city. Cricket, football and rugby now played around the world have their origins on the grass turf.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a celebration of grass - something most of us take for granted. The writing is a joy to read. The book has the quality of the reader being taken on a journey through time, to places long gone, by a guide who wants to share his passion and deep knowledge of grass and its place in British history and culture. In an understated way the author makes a convincing case against the use of artificial fertiliser and in favour of organic farming.
The book avoids brow beating. The author devotes a chapter to the lawn mower and several chapters to the impact of grass on our national sports. Indeed, because "football has always taken on the character from the turf it was played on", grass might become the scapegoat for the decline in our sporting performances. After all, the muddy pitches where youngsters learn to play do not reward skill.
Harvey suggests small changes that might have a profound effect on our environment and on our psyche. He extols the virtues of urban parks. They are shown to reduce stress and act as the city's `lungs', filtering out pollutants. They also have a cooling effect in hot weather. Heat is diverted into evaporating moisture instead of raising the temperature. This is why roof gardens are being encouraged in Tokyo where temperatures are rising four times faster than global warming.
When all said and done, it is the physiology of grass that underpins its place in the world. Unlike shrubs and trees, the growing point in grasses is at the base of the stem, below ground, protected from fire and beyond the reach of the grinding molars of herbivores. This lends grasses a genetic advantage, equivalent to our articulated thumb. Fire and grazing animals damage the growing points of trees and shrubs, preventing cell division and growth, and leaving the way open for grasses. For me, the best part of this excellent book is when Harvey discusses Darwin's theory of natural selection in the context of different grass species. He includes convincing metaphors from economics, fables, and warfare to make his points.
The author explains how mismanagement of grassland leads to infertility. For example, while "the prairies once gave their bounty free of charge, courtesy of sun and soil....", now 70% of America's grain goes to fatten the 45 million cattle that replaced 50 million bison. Apart from resulting in fatter meat loaded with cholesterol, it also depends on heavy subsidy and fertiliser.
It is perhaps ironic that British farmers also turned to fertilisers to compete with cheap imports from the prairies. The price for increasing yield has been the disappearance of most meadow flowers from 85% of British grassland. Fertilisers have also degraded the humus and upset the soil ecology, decimating our more visible wildlife. However, there is hope. Water meadows and the use of clover are just two examples of natural solutions to past infertility. Besides, while books of this calibre are being written, there is a good chance that current and future generations will learn from and correct the mistakes of the past.
The book avoids brow beating. The author devotes a chapter to the lawn mower and several chapters to the impact of grass on our national sports. Indeed, because "football has always taken on the character from the turf it was played on", grass might become the scapegoat for the decline in our sporting performances. After all, the muddy pitches where youngsters learn to play do not reward skill.
Harvey suggests small changes that might have a profound effect on our environment and on our psyche. He extols the virtues of urban parks. They are shown to reduce stress and act as the city's `lungs', filtering out pollutants. They also have a cooling effect in hot weather. Heat is diverted into evaporating moisture instead of raising the temperature. This is why roof gardens are being encouraged in Tokyo where temperatures are rising four times faster than global warming.
When all said and done, it is the physiology of grass that underpins its place in the world. Unlike shrubs and trees, the growing point in grasses is at the base of the stem, below ground, protected from fire and beyond the reach of the grinding molars of herbivores. This lends grasses a genetic advantage, equivalent to our articulated thumb. Fire and grazing animals damage the growing points of trees and shrubs, preventing cell division and growth, and leaving the way open for grasses. For me, the best part of this excellent book is when Harvey discusses Darwin's theory of natural selection in the context of different grass species. He includes convincing metaphors from economics, fables, and warfare to make his points.
The author explains how mismanagement of grassland leads to infertility. For example, while "the prairies once gave their bounty free of charge, courtesy of sun and soil....", now 70% of America's grain goes to fatten the 45 million cattle that replaced 50 million bison. Apart from resulting in fatter meat loaded with cholesterol, it also depends on heavy subsidy and fertiliser.
It is perhaps ironic that British farmers also turned to fertilisers to compete with cheap imports from the prairies. The price for increasing yield has been the disappearance of most meadow flowers from 85% of British grassland. Fertilisers have also degraded the humus and upset the soil ecology, decimating our more visible wildlife. However, there is hope. Water meadows and the use of clover are just two examples of natural solutions to past infertility. Besides, while books of this calibre are being written, there is a good chance that current and future generations will learn from and correct the mistakes of the past.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
From Nutmeg to Cod, single-topic books have taken public & publishers by storm this last decade or so..
Here's a rare one, but again, if you have any interest at all in the natural world around us and particularly the history of this Green and Pleasant Land, you'll love this one too... once you get going with it.
And no, it doesn't constrain itself to England, Britain, or Europe but ranges far and wide (from New Zealand to New England even). However, Britain is without doubt built on grass, or the rise to a world power was, even the industrial revolution had to have its roots somewhere - could that have been wool or dairy animals perhaps? With such lush and varied grasslands from chalk down to winter-flooded river meadow, not to say an English author, we get a goodly part of the action with some agricultural, societal and cultural surprises too.
The author ranges far and wide philosophically, exploring all that nature's natural blanket has bequeathed us, why as wild young things we let rip with cartwheels and rolly pollys the minute our bare feet touch (real) grass as well as the great field sports the Brits gave the world, soccer & rugger(!), tennis and cricket... even Wimbledon turf and Arsenal's famous pitch come under the microscope, as does the stress on modern groundsmen.
Then onto decline, here (the 80's destroyed more un-improved (native) pasture than the previous 50 years) and the bitter lesson of the mid-west prairies (did you know? :) - that during the seasonal buffalo migrations, just one of the main herds could make the land black for 10 miles in both directions and 5 miles wide, taking a week or more to pass a single point - yep a truffalo jam to beat the M25's worst.)
So if from that you don't like the sound of it, don't buy it. Else be assured Graham Harvey has done justice to his subject and has given you the raw material to let your imagination wander, reserving the specifics to references should you be that interested... and thankfully, latin names (in italics) are invariably accompanied by the common names. A lovely and thought provoking read...
Here's a rare one, but again, if you have any interest at all in the natural world around us and particularly the history of this Green and Pleasant Land, you'll love this one too... once you get going with it.
And no, it doesn't constrain itself to England, Britain, or Europe but ranges far and wide (from New Zealand to New England even). However, Britain is without doubt built on grass, or the rise to a world power was, even the industrial revolution had to have its roots somewhere - could that have been wool or dairy animals perhaps? With such lush and varied grasslands from chalk down to winter-flooded river meadow, not to say an English author, we get a goodly part of the action with some agricultural, societal and cultural surprises too.
The author ranges far and wide philosophically, exploring all that nature's natural blanket has bequeathed us, why as wild young things we let rip with cartwheels and rolly pollys the minute our bare feet touch (real) grass as well as the great field sports the Brits gave the world, soccer & rugger(!), tennis and cricket... even Wimbledon turf and Arsenal's famous pitch come under the microscope, as does the stress on modern groundsmen.
Then onto decline, here (the 80's destroyed more un-improved (native) pasture than the previous 50 years) and the bitter lesson of the mid-west prairies (did you know? :) - that during the seasonal buffalo migrations, just one of the main herds could make the land black for 10 miles in both directions and 5 miles wide, taking a week or more to pass a single point - yep a truffalo jam to beat the M25's worst.)
So if from that you don't like the sound of it, don't buy it. Else be assured Graham Harvey has done justice to his subject and has given you the raw material to let your imagination wander, reserving the specifics to references should you be that interested... and thankfully, latin names (in italics) are invariably accompanied by the common names. A lovely and thought provoking read...
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Great Read
24 Dec 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A great little book packed with lots of information about grasses, without which we would surely suffer. I highly recommend it.
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