Notes from Walnut Tree Farm by Roger Deakin

For the last six years of his life, the nature writer Roger Deakin kept notebooks in which he wrote his thoughts, observations and feelings about and around his home, Walnut Tree Farm in Suffolk. This book has collected together the best of these writings, giving insights into his lifestyle and his thinking. Close observations of nature lie side by side with literary criticism, highlights of conversations with friends and details of his tasks around the house and farm. Plus notes for Wildwood, the book he was writing at the time, which wasn't published until after his death.

One critic has described 'Notes from Walnut Farm' as Deakin's 'best book', which seems unfair, as he hadn't intended it as a book (and in fact part of me feels uncomfortable on Deakin's behalf, reading these writings, as they had never been intended for publication.). Having said that, the book does include a lot of very fine writing, which may well be among Deakin's 'best writings':

"I'm standing in the home meadow in the long grass, listening to the vetch pods cracking open in the sunlight and warmth after a rainy night. The rain has softened them then the sun has blackened and hardened them and the stresses in the cells have caused the pods to snap open like little springs and fling out the seeds as they twist into a spiral"

 

Being made up of journal entries, makes the book feel quite disjointed, but at the same time makes it an ideal book to have sitting around to dip into whenever you feel like it.

 

Notes from Walnut Tree Farm by Roger Deakin, published (2008) by Hamish Hamilton  

 

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The Swimmer by Patrick Barkham is a new biography of Roger Deakin.