England: A Natural History

by John Lewis-Stempel

Our countryside is iconic: a series of distinctive habitats that unite to create a landscape that is unique for the rich diversity of our flora and fauna. In England, his most magisterial book to date, John Lewis-Stempel explores each in turn, taking us from coast to moor, from downs to field, from the park to the village to create a vivid living portrait of our natural history.

In his trademark lyrical prose, Lewis-Stempel reveals the hidden workings of each habitat: the clear waters and dragonflies; the bluebells, badgers and stag beetles; wild thyme; granite cliffs; rock pools and sandy beaches; red deer standing at ancient oaks; the wayside flowers of the lane; hedgehogs and hares; and snow on the high peak. Each landscape - be it calm green or wild moor, plunging cliff or flatland fen - has shaped our idea of ourselves, our sense of what it is to be in England.

In a stunning package, complete with decorated boards, endpapers, chapterheads and a map, England: A Natural History is the definitive volume on the English landscape and the capstone of John Lewis-Stempel's nature writing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Natural History, History, Travel, Audiobook, Animals

464 pages, Hardcover

First published October 3, 2024

Reviews

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

I bought this enticed by the cover and quotation that the author is Britain’s best living nature writer by the Times. Apologies, I don’t feel this is accurate, but there are much better writers like Robert MacFarlane
I did not realise this would be a pro-hunting and farmers book. For instance, he kills a beautiful bird, marvelling at the dead creature without feeling anything for taking the life. Nevertheless, on the flip side the book showed me the humanity of the man with his appreciation and knowledge of the natural world and really that we do share much in common… so I shall not begrudge his intolerance of vegans, we are a mutually intolerant pairing generally which is a shame.
I feel like I prefer wandering books that are more emotive and philosophical rather than a stream of disjointed facts. Again Farlane, Leif Bersweden, Rebecca Solnit etc. Personal preference though, this type of nature writing may be more appealing to some.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m somewhat puzzled by the subtitle of this: ‘A Natural History’ infers a comprehensive survey of English nature, and while the book certainly covers a lot of ground it does so in a freewheeling, anecdotal way. John Lewis-Stempel is an enthusiast and spending time in his company is frequently delightful and always informative, but his book is not the authoritative study implied by that tricksy subtitle, far less ‘the definitive volume on the English landscape’ (landscape?) that the front flyleaf blurb claims.
It is, though, a joy to read, akin to a series of leisurely walks with an extremely knowledgeable and amiable amateur naturalist who loves to share his considerable learning and love for the natural world.
Much effort has gone into the design of the book - it has a strikingly beautiful front cover, which when removed reveals a gold embossed front board and spine - so it seems inexcusable that the reader is short-changed by the lack of an index, which further undermines the publisher’s claims of definitiveness. There were several occasions when I would have liked to refer back to cross-reference some new nugget of information, but was unable to with any ease due to this oversight. A glossary would have been useful too, given the amount of scientific terminology; all explained in the text, but, with no index and no glossary, there’s no way of reinforcing the new knowledge acquired.

[Roger Morgan-Grenville · Rating 5 out of 5]

English natural history is a huge, complex and much-argued over subject. By narrowing things down to a dozen or so specific spots and habitats, Lewis-Stempel gives himself the chance to keep it simple and un-intimidating. What really makes it is the alchemy by which his encyclopaedic knowledge of nature turns into glorious words and phrases. This is wonderful story telling. A rare 5 star from me. I loved it.

[Katrina Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biased and personal and almost indulgent. However I really enjoyed this one man's exploration of what the British landscape is/was/means.
Split into habitats, it felt obvious which were more familiar to him, but that made his voice more refreshing throughout.
The history of these places, our use of the natural resources, impacts on wildlife populations and John's own modern experiences.
Lots of literature, poetry and inspirating natural historians of the past are referred to. Not much by way of modern conservation beyond the agricultural practices.



Estuary: Thames
Avocets
Salinity
92 bird species supported
Conservation designations
Industrial history
Salt marsh
Sea aster mining bees
Eelgrass beds and Brent geese
Eels
Mist and fog
Sea buckthorn
Ragworms

Park: Richmond Park
Regency England vision
History of deer parks- sport and status
Deer overpopulation
Stag beetles
Hunting and culls
Fox hunting controversy
Red kites
Shakespearean bird records
Parakeets dispersal
English oak
Watching one tree over a day

Downs: Mount Caburn
Memories of driving with his father
The climb
Archeological theories. Ancient forts and defences. Then a place for livestock.
Geology and soil
Alkaline loving flowers
Skylarks. The Lark Ascending
History and behaviour of rabbits
Purse web spider hunting
Crickets and grasshoppers
Dew ponds of rainwater
WH Hudson's writing

Beechwood: Burnham Beeches
Pre-ice-age pollen records
Height. Record being 144feet in West Sussex
Can be hedgerow or pollarded
Bark graffiti
Fungi on decaying wood such as inkcap
Winter desolation
His mother's funeral day and the song of a robin
Bluebell season
Robin Hood greenwood
Mast years and nuts
Chestnut soup recipe
Night walking

River: The Wye
AONB
Life stages of rivers like human lives
Salmon fishing
Cambrian mountains above, the source being Plynlimon. Climbing Plynlimon
Dippers
Herons
Minnows nibbling while swimming
Encounter with an otter
Fish stock crashes
Acid rain and phosphate run off. Sewage pollution. Not just the chicken farms!
Beavers reintroduction. Pros and cons, such as blocking the migration of salmon

Field: Home Farm
View getting the train home from London
Year's diary.
Hedges, sheep, equinoxes, weather, chickens, poets like Frost and Thomas, cuckoo, wheat field flowers, corn field poppies, suncream on pig ears, swifts returning, nerd about turd hehe, mood altering blackberries, kestrals, redwings at the start of winter, starlings feasting on the wheat stubble fields, badger sett of six

Village: Helpston
Gosh he loves John Clare!?
Graveyard
Enclosures act
Pubs and brewery English scent
Verge foraging
Village ponds and their multiple purposes
Reverend Gilbert White- Selborne village natural historian
Literature and nature writing

Moor: Spauton
Snow dusting
Heather and fowl
Phantasmagoria fears
Upland, hard rocks, waterlogged, peat, bog, mere, high rainfall
Grouse
Moorland home of nesting waders like curlews
Cuckoo
Bilberries and lingonberries
Illegal persecution of raptors
Sundew

Lake: Crummock Water
Char
High fells and deep lakes so characteristic
Traditional fishing heritage adds to UNESCO status for the Lake District
Made by ice
Pikes. Can live 15 years. 53lb!!
Swallows and Amazons nostalgia
Herdwicks and sheep keeping
The Rowan
Rowan Jelly recipe
Leeches
Osprey sighting
Lake hydrolics

Heath: Arne
Twilight
Dartford Warbler
Loss of heathland
Woodlark
Stoats
Adders
Poetryyyy!
Pigs (or) brush cutting humans
The pine cone

Fen and Broad: Hickling Broad
Human creation of the Norfolk broads
Drowned peat pits
63 Norfolk Broads in total
Hickling is the largest
Childhood reading
1970s visit was all leaked fuel and muddied waters
Invasive coypu hunted to prevent their bank burrowing damage (yet we reintroduce beavers?)
"Method-Writing": wildfowling
Shooting of teal, not done so since
Time in a bird hide
Cranes
Mute swans
Water vole
MOTHS!!!
Shakespeare's insects list
Moths evolved before butterflies. 2,500 British species. Hook between hind and forewings. Feathery antennae.
Water rail alarm call
Rustling of the reeds.
Swallowtail experience
Mayflies and dragonflies
Hobby
Collective bound of the birds here
Bitterns and their camouflage and boom call

Coast: Potreath
First seaside memories
Holidaying
Facing the Atlantic
Returning to the village after twenty years
Eternal rhythm
Zones of the tidal range
Rock pools
Oystercatchers peeping
Ocean Tide Loading can lift Cornwall up?!
Beachcombing in winter
Oysters shells and growth rings
Bladderwrack and kelp
Seaweed as fertiliser
Seashore diet of Mesolithic Britons
Edibles list: cockles, limpet, mussel, razor clam, winkle, dulse, kelp, laver, sea lettuce
Fox scavenging the seashore. Woah
Gulls and peregrines and turnstones
Cuttlefish: cephalopod, oval shell, three hearts, blue green blood, sees backwards, camouflage abilities, beaky jaws, can delay gratification such big brained creatures
Rock samphire picking
Sardine? fishing. Sardines = pilchards
His friend's father's guillemot eggs from eighty years ago
People collecting
Night swimming with the tide pulling him in reassuringly
Oak floating in the water reminding him of ancestors landing on oaken longships

This book as been beachcombing, sifting through life experiences

[Anastasia Bizyayeva · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful, rambling, explorative book around the natural landscape of Britain - such a good one to read on a rainy day to make you APPRECIATE said rainy day. I picked this up on a whim when I was locked out of my flat and had a few hours to kill in a bookstore, and boy am I glad I did.

I've learned so much about the natural world from Lewis-Stempel - from the deep call of the bittern to the lifespan of an oak tree, to the bitter taste of sea hawthorn. It's made me love the place I live even more, and that's a great gift from a book!

[Rob Mead · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a naturalist’s notebook, not a natural history

[Andrew Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

At one stage in this book the author declares “Literariness in nature writing is a dangerous thing, too often rotting purple…”. Well, Mr Lewis-Stempel is the non-pareil of combining nature writing and literature and both to a very high degree. Again, the blurb on the front of the book suggests the author is “Britain’s finest living nature writer”; well, he is, for sure. This is a splendid book taking in the author’s experiences of, and knowledge about, the varying landscapes of England from moorland to coast and woodland to estuary. I defy anybody to read this book and not learn something interesting. The author’s depth of knowledge is outstanding and the insights he gives the reader are frequently provided with a gentle - English, of course - humour. Without exception, I recommend this volume and every other piece of writing by Mr. Lewis-Stempel.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book, by a very erudite and lyrical author. John Lewis-Stempel takes 12 different areas, each a different habitat, in England, and writes about the natural life in that place. He draws on science, literature and music to evoke them, and mixes in personal experience. On the Isle of Purbeck, he is surprised by the local wildlife;

"And the sand at my feet fizzed.

"The adder, uncoiling from it's sun-spot snooze, hissed, sped. Although not as quickly as me: I sprinted, personal best, superseding my 200 yards, when, aged fifteen, I broke the school record of seventy-five years' standing, all age categories, thirteen to eighteen. Smashed. Shattered.

"On Hyde's Heath, luckily, there is no one to hear you scream."

[Hermione Laake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exquisite work of art. The author has a clear understanding of nature and a love of it. This shines through with the choice of language and the mini adventures the reader is taken on, such as the meeting with The Dartford warbler. I particularly enjoyed the pages which took the reader on a forensic tour of the Thames. This was educational. There were some surprising mentions, such as a recipe for making jam with the berries from rowan tree, something I have always wanted to do as I grew up watching my mother make jams from wild blackberries and marmalade from oranges. This is written by a farmer who clearly loves the natural world and has lived in some beautiful parts of our green and pleasant land.

[Luke Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the historical depth and references cited throughout. It not only has provided at least one new title that has been added to my TBR list, but the writing also inspires exploration. There are now numerous places I want to visit after reading the book.

I did find the pace a little ponderous at times, and the writing veered into the pretentious on a couple of times. It felt like poetic nuance was being reached for a little too hard at times.

I didn’t like what seemed like obvious farmer and wildfowler bias which crept in, masquerading as balanced arguments against rewilding and reintroductions.

But I did love the walk down memory lane collecting plants like sticky billy, and making daisy chains.

All in an enjoyable but compromised read.

[Derek MEACHER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the first of his books that I’ve read - this one does not disappoint. On the contrary it teaches us so much: what natural England is; what’s to be seen and found in nature once we open our eyes. This is no dry encyclopaedia : on the contrary it’s a living commentary expressed in the most engaging language. It can be read from cover to cover - each and every section draws you in. Or it can be referred to one section at a time, perhaps to inform a planned visit to a particular corner of the country. How satisfying to put a book down knowing that the author has shared his wisdom and observations - it’s like sitting in a bird-hide and being enthralled at the sights:):

[Nikko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sometimes am wary when I see a writer pump out a zillion books on the same or closely connected subjects, and thought this latest book (and my first) by John Lewis-Stempel might be a lot of leftovers. I could not have been more wrong. This was a masterpiece. The writing consistently superb. The topics and places well-chosen. I cannot recommend this highly enough to anyone interested in the plants, animals, and landscape of England (and a bit of Wales).

I read the jacketed hardcover. I removed the jacket to read it and was surprised by the gorgeous foil stamp of a stag on the cover. A very nice touch, and this book deserved it.

[Linus Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although a bit dry at points, it felt like a lovely wander through the English countryside and varying landscapes and environments with someone who can't wait to tell you everything they know. I loved the author's passion for nature and literature and it created a compelling read, as well as inspiring a bit more appreciation in me for what we have available to us in this country - something that tends to be forgotten.

[Laura Boyland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dreamlike, ethereal journey of England’s natural world. The second book I have read by John Lewis Stempel. I will absolutely read again. (Only thing that is a bit of a shame is there is no index or glossary to use as a reference to all the knowledge, terminology, and the species of animals/plants etc. mentioned in this book. I would have liked to look these up after reading rather than trawling back through to find the information in the chapters) however, it is still a stunning book to read nonetheless.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

With its beautifully observed reflections on the various landscapes explored this is a book I know I will return to in order to savour its delights over again. The fact that it's divided into clearly delineated areas allows for 'dipping in and out' in an easy fashion. This is nature writing at its very best, reminiscent of the nature writings of Ronald Blythe, Richard Mabey and Roger Deakin.

[Kharis · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me ages to read this, because I just like to prolong the time I spend taking in JLS words. They are beautiful and thought provoking. This book, like his others, does not disappoint. I cannot get enough of this author. His writing is unique. It is totally escapist and I can really feel part of the landscape he describes. A beautiful book. Like the others, I shall treasure it.

[Alex T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating 3.5/5

[Charlie Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars.

A beautiful, if intensely detailed book. Will further develop this review.

[Kristian Gunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible writer, witty too, with a depth of knowledge that is utterly incredible

[Sam Worby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I love in nature writing. Highly recommend.

[MR STEPHEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written: luminous really. My first JLS but it won’t be my last.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

More wonderful nature writing from John Lewis-Stempel, a pleasure to read

[Alex Tarbox · Rating 5 out of 5]

illuminating, inspiring, intriguing. Maybe the best nature book I've ever read

[Francesca Wood · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - really interesting book and nothing at all wrong with it just not something that kept me intrigued enough to finish it.

[Max Wiersma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully insightful, which I expected.

Beautifully poetic, which I didn’t !

Amazing read

[Jo Turnbull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful to encounter our landscape through an expert’s knowledge. I found it indulgent in places but captivating nonetheless. 4.5* from me. Fascinating.

[Desirae · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's breadth of knowledge pertaining to the flora and fauna of England is astounding.

[Caitlin Carroll · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure what I expected but it was just a little boring for me. Some interesting bits and then gave up around page 200

[jasmine harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

a beautiful, thoughtful collection on the poetics, nature, & histories of England. i really enjoyed this part-memoir, part-essay book.

[Snoakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

England: A Natural History is a love song to the English countryside.

Over the years John Lewis-Stempel has made a point of revisiting certain locations to get to know them better, to truly understand them, slowly building up his knowledge of the nature in these places layer by layer. This book is the result. He takes us to a variety of habitats, such as downs, lake, beechwood and even village. For each he has selected a specific location, from his farm in Herefordshire to the Thames estuary via North Yorkshire and the Lake District. He shares his recollections of these landscapes, sometimes as a diary, occasionally with poetry and always with his personal meanderings and musings.

As ever it's a joy to spend time in his world.