REWILD YOURSELF
SIMON BARNES, SIMON & SCHUSTER, £14.99 (HB)
Simon Barnes’ good-natured, get-out-there-and-experiencethe-thrill-of-nature manual comes from a very English sensibility. Imagine CS Lewis and Gerald Durrell talking to Danny the drug dealer from Withnail and I who tells them: “you have done something to your brain. You have made it high”. This being high on the mysteries of (wild) life, is the rewilding of yourself. The spells you need to attain this come from the arcane wisdom of muddy-boots natural history: wear waterproofs, buy binoculars, sit still, look at stuff and learn what it’s called. Barnes keeps his thumb over the hosepipe of his knowledge, letting it out in spurts; his experience is mixed with an evangelism to enthuse the most truculent naturesceptic. There is a moral tone to Barnes’ fieldcraft, a response to nature-deficit syndrome. The point to it is the joy that can be passed on by sharing the thrill of spotting a rare bird or butterfly. This is a generous, smart self-rewilding. Paul Evans, nature writer