The other day I encountered a stranger who was reading a book while waiting in line to enter Lincoln Center for a concert. The title, Edge of England, caught my eye. “Is that fiction or nonfiction?” I asked. “Nonfiction,” he replied. “It’s the story of the English county of Lincoln from the Vikings to the present. By a former reporter. A splendid writer.” That probably would not have been especially enticing to most people, but I bought a copy immediately, and it’s next up in the happily endless stack on my bed table. It will be a welcome addition to a cache of similar books I have been reading with intense enjoyment. Let me tell you about some of them. (It’s easy enough to hit the delete key.)
The first of these came to my attention a few years ago in a review in The Times Literary Supplement. I became immersed in its subject – British life and lore, and similar titles have become a minor passion.
There are several reasons why I fell so hard. England is where I am from. Willcotts have lived there a long time. One was said to have been in the Battle of Trafalgar. In the late nineteenth century, some of them emigrated to Kansas where my father was born. When Ann and I lived in London for a few years in the 90s, we enjoyed many weekends exploring the island. Reading the books I’m going to tell you about has been like a trip home.
I suppose it counts, too, that these books are far removed from the divisions and violence of life in the United States. Donald Trump is nowhere to be found in the Cairngorms or the Lake District or anyplace else these books take me.
But these reasons pertain mostly to why I started down that literary road in the first place. I continued because I was enchanted by the writing. A well made sentence, a perfect choice of words, a rhythmical incantation of a place and experience are irresistible to me. To anyone really. Children too young to read respond wide-eyed to the recitation of classic stories and poems. And these books are marvelously well written.
In no particular order, here are some of them.
Christopher Sommerville, Walking the Bones of Britain. A 3 Billion Year Journey from the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary. Brits are great walkers. Sommerville is the weekly “walking correspondent” of the London Times. I doubt many other newspapers have one of those. The book is a close look at the history and geology of the land beneath Sommerville’s feet as he walks the thousand miles of the subtitle. It is told with humor and a light touch.
The Shepherd’s Life. A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks is a lyrical picture of a way of life that the author and his family have known for generations. In addition to the lore of raising sheep in the lake district, the book is a memoir. Rebanks drops out of school, discovers books, and, somewhat older and much less privileged than most students, finds his way to Oxford University, after which he returns to his life as a shepherd albeit while continuing to write.
A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles by Ned Palmer is less history than reference book. Who doesn’t love reference books? Many people, I’m sure. But I like them a lot, especially this one. It’s a delightful and instructive trip from one cheese-making operation to another, large and small. I read it right through as if it had a plot.
Somewhat similarly structured is Steeple Chasing. Around Britain by Church by Peter Ross. It’s “a delicious treat, and one that both believers and sceptics will enjoy.” Financial Times.
The Running Hare. The Secret Life of Farmland by farmer John Lewis-Stempel is a lovely description of life forms on typical British farms, where the hare and other creatures and plants are running for their lives. The author makes a case for less destructive farming in this story of growing wheat on fifteen acres using traditional methods. Planting by hand, shunning chemicals, and employing other long out-of-date practices, he nonetheless makes a financial go of it.
Robert MacFarland, The Old Ways. A Journey on Foot, is a close look at paths that have been used for hundreds of years. It’s also a paean to the joy of walking. Here’s a favorite passage. “Towards the very end of his life, even the walk down to the stream gorge, became impossible for my grandfather [a famously accomplished walker and mountaineer]. His legs – which had carried him so far over so many countries – lost their vigor, his centre of gravity rose, and his stability diminished. Stride shortened to shuffle, shuffle to dodder, dodder to step.” On the surface, that’s not a happy picture – not for me. I just had my 86th birthday. But in the context (which is too long to quote), MacFarland renders death an acceptable part of the natural cycle. It’s a good writer who can do that.
If the gong had not announced that the concert was starting, I would have talked about these books with the man in the line, and we would have enjoyed a fine long moment of human interaction.
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COMING SOON. In Passing. Scenes from an Unconventional Life.
“Impractical choices and fine adventures told in the award-winning style of Willcott’s newspaper column and blog – a refreshing break from the commonplace affairs of ordinary life,”