Author Patrick Barkham talks to us about his latest book Wild Green Wonders and shares some Suffolk wildlife to look out for in the winter months.
Patrick Barkham writes for The Guardian on natural history and is at the forefront of ageneration of British authors who have turned thousands of readers on to the mysteries of the countryside. Suffolk readers will be familiar with many of his books including The Butterfly Isles and Badgerlands.
In February 2022 Wild Green Wonders: A Life in Nature was published featuring pieces from The Guardian from Patrick's twenty years at the paper (Guardian Books). He also edited The Wild Isles, an anthology of the best of British and Irish nature writing which is due to be published in paperback in December 2022. You can also find Patrick's books on our catalogue.
Patrick will be speaking at the Lavenham Literary Festival on Sunday 20 November at Lavenham Village Hall, sponsored by Mattioli Woods Wealth Management. Tickets are available from the What's On West Suffolk website.
The honest answer is Bo and Luke Duke from the Dukes of Hazard. This will be a mystery to anyone not raised in the 1980s but they were the heroes of an American TV show: a couple of "good old country boys" who drove their gas-guzzling 1970s Dodge very fast along the dirt roads of the fictional Hazard county.
I loved their upstanding morals, their youthful charm and their checked shirts unbuttoned almost to their waists. And the fact that they were country boys, like me. Some elements of the series would not be politically acceptable today but the boys were chivalrous and treated everyone with respect (apart from the baddies), which was a good lesson for me.
I was bookish and I grew up in rural Norfolk so the two went hand in hand. My Dad seemed to have wildlife superpowers to me as a child and almost everything I know today about nature I learnt at his side. My Mum knew a lot too. They were both teachers and I guess there is a teacherly element in me – "here's an amazing thing, have you heard about this?" – but the main spark is stories. I have always loved stories and read so many that I wanted to tell stories too. In all my writing, I'm trying to tell interesting stories.
The Butterfly Isles was the easiest book to write because it was a simple narrative quest – my attempt to see all 59 species of British butterfly in one summer. I spent the winter reading as much as I could about all the butterflies – children's books and butterflies in culture and history as well as the biology and ecology – and then romped around the countryside trying to find them, writing as I went. It was a joy.
Badgerlands was lovely too because I did a lot of research but it was nicely confined to one species – everything I could find that was about badgers in the English language, fiction and non-fiction. There are a surprising number of badger books in the British Library. The really difficult books are those that tackle more open-ended topics, where the research is potentially un-ending. My book, Wild Child, about children and nature, was one of those.
It is incredible how much has changed in twenty years, mainly in terms of human attitudes. An awareness of the challenges we face from climate change and biodiversity loss are mainstream now, almost everyone discusses them, and these were just niche concerns two decades ago. That's heartening but of course we need to convert awareness into action.
Nature has changed too, even here in Britain. I'm amazed looking back at the Butterfly Isles, which I wrote in 2009, and seeing how much has changed in the world of butterflies. Broadly speaking, the abundance of butterflies continues to decline, which is tragic and worrying, and yet almost all the species that were rare or endangered in 2009 have seen their numbers recover, thanks to conservation action. We can save any species if we really try. Now we need to really try to save all species.
I was hopeful there would be more permanent change but I think we have largely reverted to our former way of life. The thing I would love to see made permanent is car-free days on roads – that hasn't happened. But at a more individual level, thousands, probably millions of people discovered the pleasures of local footpaths and local nature during the lockdowns, and they continue to enjoy local nature - perhaps not every day but a seed has been planted and it is growing. That new awareness of nature will bear fruition in changing behaviour in years to come,
Oh yes! This is a project made in Suffolk! I've just finished writing the biography of Roger Deakin. He was the author of Waterlog, a brilliant book which frog-kicked the wild swimming movement into being. But Roger was more than simply a writer and a naturalist – he was a fascinating man who perfectly represents the 1960s generation. He was an ad man in Swinging Sixties London and then dropped out and moved to Mellis, a village in north Suffolk, where he restored a derelict farmhouse. He was part of a fascinating moment in social history, when farm workers left the land and the Waveney Valley and Suffolk was repopulated by new bohemians.
Roger became an English teacher, an environmental activist, a music promotor (bringing rock and folk to Snape and the Aldeburgh Festival), a filmmaker, wood-worker and, ultimately, a great Romantic. My biography comes out in April 2023 and it is as unconventional as Roger – written in his words, interspersed with the recollections of his many friends. I'm really excited about it.
I'm going to be telling stories from my 20 years of wildlife journalism – there are so many fascinating stories about nature and about us: the loneliest bat in England, the man who secretly released butterflies across the land, the magic of beavers. And we can discuss some great debates, such as is rewilding inspiring or just antagonistic?
I'd recommend a dusk walk – look out for barn owls quartering the fields, bats and deer – they are all busy at this magic time. You'll probably encounter overwintering geese searching for grass or sugar beet tops to eat as well. The pink-footed geese make the most beautiful high-pitched almost dog-like calls as they fly overhead.
Guy Shrubsole's The Lost Rainforests of Britain. It looks fascinating. I've also just started another book by the greatest living writer on the countryside, who lives on the border of Suffolk and Essex – Ronald Blythe. He has a new "greatest hits" collection of his best Church Times columns published this month called Next to Nature. It has a fantastic introduction by another superb writer who lives right on the Suffolk border – Richard Mabey.
I am obsessed with football and my new ambition is to take a coaching badge so I can help my daughter's U11s team!
