Spring is the Only Season: How it Works, What it Does and Why it Matters

by Simon Barnes

'A book that filled me from first to last with a rapture as transcendent and thrilling as that which spring yearly provides ... I absolutely adored it!' STEPHEN FRY

'As dynamic and ebullient as the season it celebrates ... There is no one I'd rather spring into spring with than Simon Barnes' KATE HUMBLE

'An endlessly illuminating love letter to the most beguiling of the seasons' LEE SCHOFIELD, author of the award-winning Wild Fell

Spring is the time of renewal and rebirth, a celebration of the resilience of life. As the year turns, animals and plants that have struggled to survive the winter find new hope and create the next generation. The season has inspired some of humanity's greatest art and many of its most significant religious festivals.

Now, in Spring is the Only Season, Simon Barnes provides a fresh and compelling look at this period of the year. He explains the science of the seasons, which are caused by the planet's 23.5 degree tilt; he also highlights the music, the paintings and the poetry that have tried to capture it. Packed with fascinating insights, remarkable facts and key stories, the book is a vivid and multi-faceted portrait of spring.

However, while the Earth will continue to spin on its tilting axis, he reveals how our impact on the planet is beginning to destroy the natural course of the seasons, and that elements of the beloved spring – from migrating birds to emerging butterflies – are endangered by climate change. But it's not too late. Not yet. We can still make a difference and so continue to enjoy the pleasures of spring.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Birds, Natural History

447 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 13, 2025

Reviews

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Hope remains an option : of course it does, for every year we have Spring"

Spring is the Only Season is a fascinating and delightful read- the book has obviously been a labour of love for Simon Barnes and this shows through with the breadth of research and the passionate way different elements of Spring are explored.

Exploring Spring in many forms; religion; mythology and folklore; poetic and artistic ; and the signs from the natural world that Spring has arrived- flora and fauna.

The depth of information is impressive and in many ways this wonderful book feels like an anthology of idea , stories and information from numerous sources exploring the impact of Spring all gathered together through the meticulous investigation and scrutiny of Simon Barnes.

Personally, the areas about the natural world appealed the most- the bumblebee; the dormouse; the swift; the moths and the adders. The Spring awakenings of those creatures that hibernate- signs of the new season - are brilliant.

But this isn't a sugar coated read- impacts of industrialisation in farming and the ever growing impact of climate change are explored; " the breakdown in synchronicity is creating a phenological mismatch'" - flowers coming into bud earlier than expected- animals awakening from hibernation.at different times. There is a message of hope.

This is read that will educate, inform and entertain - but ultimately it is a celebration about the most beautiful time of year that annually brings back hope after the dark winter months

A wonderful read- recommended

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 400+-page tome has an impressive scope. Like Mark Cocker in One Midsummer’s Day, he retreats all the way back to the Big Bang and then slowly zooms in, via the evolution of plants and the phenology of birds and insects. He also covers every possible topic you could think of relating to spring: religious festivals, mythology, literature, art, farming, and so on. Had I never read another book on spring, perhaps I would find this compendium satisfying, but it is rather meandering and too many of its points of reference are familiar. Moreover, the overall project is too similar to Tim Dee’s extraordinary Greenery. Alas, Barnes isn’t half the writer Dee is, so this ends up being a rather workmanlike survey. I most enjoyed the chapter-ending “Signs of Spring” lists from his Norfolk home. These more than illustrate how seasonality has gone awry due to climate change; a whole chapter wasn’t necessary to spell it out.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I loved the essay-type chapter structure which covered a different aspect of spring. I learned so much, yet the tone was friendly throughout and so easy to read. Full of hope, but equally a good reminder that we must all take action to preserve this beautiful season.

[S Ashok · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I have been reading Asokamithran's short story collection, I have been reading works on nature it seems to compensate for the modernist work of Asokamithran. This book is something I started reading as Winter was ending and Spring was beginning in Finland. I was born in India, and grew up in equatorial region for more than three decades. I moved to Finland in the year 2022, and from then on I have been fascinated by the changes that happens in the land as the season changes. In India atleast the seasonal changes are mild, infact mostly we notice the summer or rainy season. In this book we are introduced to spring in all its glory.
The book begins with the reason why earth has the changes in season. I had always thought may be its due to the distance varies as the earth revolves around the sun. But in that case both the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere should have the same season. Its basically owing to the tilt of the earth which causes this varied heating resulting in seasons. As the earth's north pole tilt towards to the atmosphere , we have the beginning of spring. This gradually brings in unbelievable changes in life, the soil temperature increases, the tree which had shed their leaves in the winter start budding. The land which was covered in snow, white and calm snow comes back to life. Birds which had migrated to warmer temperatures come back, bringing in their beautiful songs and make every morning wonderful.
As so much changes in spring, its synonymous with rebirth, hence we have easter a festival of rebirth coinciding with the season of spring. The book brilliantly documents how different ways mythology and religion have tried to reinterpret this time of rebirth. The easter egg hunt which is now quite common everywhere in the west, comes from the smiple fact that brids like hen lay their eggs only after the arrival of spring. Its only with the modern poultry that we have eggs all round the year. Hence to find the eggs after the winter months would have been a joyful hunt in the past.
The book also brilliantly documents the incredible journeys that birds, honey bees and even butterflies take journeying the entire earth to arrive during the beginning of spring. Its a time when birds tried to multiply, nature itself is in a dance to create more of it. Spring is all about these changes, from games, festivals, and the great glory that we witness in nature.

[Haxxunne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book to be consumed
—
Using spring as a jumping off point, Barnes explores the world and its indebtedness to the season of renewal. Covering mythology and folklore, religion and history, geography and botany, and much, much more, Barnes gives us a three-dimensional view of a natural phenomenon that isn’t as universal as it appears. Written in an engaging and enlightening tone, Barnes also doesn’t shy away from the climate emergency and its effects on spring and the flora and fauna that rely on it to renew the year.

A book to be consumed chapter by chapter, you can dip into this depending on what catches your eye, but the book builds the evidence that spring, while being only one of many seasons, is the season to kickstart the rest after the long (or recently short) cool and cold of winter.

[Ido]

Highly recommend this.
Review to follow upon publication.
Thank you #netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comes with a message about climate change .. very obvious signs of our changing season .. as well as a very good exploration of the history and culture of spring