Wanderings on the Wild Side: A Natural History Diary

Wonderful sightings of kingfishers, colourful butterflies, wild deer and beautiful wild flowers inspired me to recount the experiences from years ago. Family and friends’ photographs are much appreciated and their company on walks too. Exploring the local countryside in the early nineteen fifties, when I was just eight years old, gave me a love of wild life, flora and fauna, and filled me with wonder, hearing the flock of lapwings calling ‘Peewit!’, and watching them circling, twisting and turning in the blue skies far above me. In those years children could wander freely, easily surviving the occasional mishap such as falling in the deep part of the stream that flowed across the moors to the River Soar. Sketching and painting also enjoyable activities from early childhood enabled me as a self-taught artist to try and capture the beauty of the landscape, where I walk so often, in my paintings as well as in my diary. However, my family struggling to read my handwritten diaries, (I found it difficult too in places!) encouraged me to typewrite them and this book is the result.