Book Review: How to See Nature by Paul Evans

Paul Evans, writer and journalist, including the Guardian’s Country Diary segment, was asked to write this book as a modern day take on a classic 1940s book of the same name by Frances Pitt, aimed at was evacuees. In a way it is a lost opportunity that another woman wasn’t asked to write this book. However, the author has written a beautiful book in his usual lyrical style.

The book is a collection of beautiful wanderings on a variety of topics such as pipistrelle bats and grassland grouse, with each chapter focussed on a particular animal or plant or nature area.

In each chapter he discusses the origins and history of his selected topic, quoting poetry, and meandering along the places where he has spotted his quarry, aiming to give the reader hints and tips to recreate his journeys or, even better, their very own.

Each chapter touches upon the effect the climate crisis has had on each of his selections, with a mixture of reality and optimism.

The book often focuses on the less well known animals and plants, giving visibility to the underdog. However, in doing this, he provides a sense of mindfulness – encouraging you, for example as you walk along a river, to see beyond the obvious. He encourages you to really SEE. Stop and spend time just noticing. The more you look, the more you will notice.

A ‘Bestiary’ is included as the end chapter, listing an A-Z of creatures such as June Bugs, Otters and Snails.

Read this book if you would like to feel that you’re relaxing in a meadow on a sunny day, with the soft breeze on your face, the birds calling and crickets chirping, with all the time in the world.

"How we see is very much influenced by our values and attitudes, moods and emotions, beliefs and curiosity, and that influences how Nature is represented. However, what we see can also change us."

"It is only when a small, dark bird, its sillhouette darting over the water, turns to fly back, turns into the first rays of sunlight through river fog, turns and sparks electric blue, that I see it is a kingfisher. A moment of brilliance."

“Each species we knowingly march off the plank diminishes us; each species we extinguish through ignorance does the same; we have no excuses. Not knowing the future seems and argument for doing nothing; doing something however daft or reckless, for other creatures, gives some meaning to our own.”