It has been said that there are two kinds of football writers: those who have been influenced by Brian Glanville and those who should have been. Perhaps the same is true of Richard Mabey and nature writers – though if you suggested that, he would probably reject the compliment on the grounds that there is no such thing as “nature writers”, only good writers and bad writers.
When I was 14, the world was divided up sciences and science people; on the other, there was art. I was in upper fourth arts. I was proud to be an artist but sad that I was no longer allowed to be interested in biology. This ancient ancestral division has given us two ways of understanding the wild world: by means of the imagination and without precision, or by means of evidence and without soul. Or if there is a bit of soul creeping in, it comes with words such as “magnificent” (all birds of prey, all mature trees) and “iconic” (just about anything).
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