THE nearest neighbours are a mile away on a back road, the nearest village shop three miles. A nuthatch, woodpecker and goldfinch are wing-elbowing at the seed table with up to 20 other species, only yards from the door. This is naturalist Richard Williamson’s daily life, deep in ancient woodland near Chichester, West Sussex. He and his wife, Anne, have quietly revelled in cottage detachment for 50 years, with or without the usual facilities. Being at the heart of Nature is what life is about for these octogenarians, with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony joyfully resounding as a motif.
The key year was 1943, when eight-year-old Richard received a copy of his father Henry’s book, Tarka the Otter—‘a battered copy that thrilled me by its construction and rhythm, plus the drama and detail of things I was already absorbing on our war-time Norfolk farm at Stiffkey’. It might not be unusual for a child to be profoundly affected by their parent, but to share it with the world is less common. ‘That book has changed more than just my life,’ he reflects. ‘Ted Hughes said in his memorial address on Father’s death, in 1977, that Henry was “an essential, precious and crucial part of my life, creating a genuine poetic mythology in the tradition of Tolstoy… an imaginative vision, intensely controlled at every point by imaginative laws, and it does the real work of poetry”.
Denne historien er fra August 12, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 12, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
