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Weideland: een jaar uit het leven van een Engels veld
In Weideland beschrijft John Lewis-Stempel een jaar uit het leven op en rond zijn landgoed in Herefordshire, West-Engeland. In subliem proza vertelt Lewis-Stempel over het voortschrijden van de seizoenen; zoals hij over vossen, wulpen, bosuilen, leeuweriken, dassen en allerlei andere dieren schrijft, zouden ze zo weggelopen kunnen zijn uit een meeslepende Netflix-serie. Het is dankzij Lewis-Stempels verbeeldingskracht, humor en schrijfstijl dat zijn lezers van de eerste tot de laatste pagina het gevoel hebben dat ze zélf deel uitmaken van het leven op deze Britse landerijen.
253 pages, Paperback
First published March 13, 2014
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5353 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 312 reviews
June 14, 2017
A few months ago, a GR friend reviewed this book and it sounded like just the sort of thing I'd love. Sadly, when trying to locate a copy I found out it isn't readily available in the U.S. (I'm still baffled as to why an e-book isn't available, but I also know nothing about copyright and publishing laws and business arrangements). When I traveled to the U.K. a few weeks ago this book (and a few others) were top on the list of souvenirs to bring home.
This book was a pure joy to read. John Lewis-Stempel is a keen observer who has the patience -- and the passion -- to see in nature what so many others would miss. He has a deep-rooted connectedness to the land throughout every season. His writing is exquisite, and by use of all of his senses he transports his readers to that English meadow in Herefordshire. In an age when so many books about the earth are bleak and leave readers with a feeling of despair, Lewis-Stemple manages to addresses ecological concerns, but keeps the focus on celebrating the beauty and natural rhythms of his field.
I dog-eared at least 3 dozen pages and underlined numerous passages so I could easily find them in the future. As a closing thought, I will share the following:
"To stand alone in a field in England and listen to the morning chorus of the birds is to remember why life is precious...I will proselytize on behalf of the dawn chorus. If you rise at dawn in May you can savour the world before the pandemonium din of the Industrial Revolution and 24/7 shopping...There's an evening chorus too, and it is best enjoyed on a day like this, when the light is seductive in white veils, and there is enough moisture in the dusk air to intensify the floral incense of the spring meadow...Oh, the joy to be alive in England, in Meadowland, once May is here."
This book was a pure joy to read. John Lewis-Stempel is a keen observer who has the patience -- and the passion -- to see in nature what so many others would miss. He has a deep-rooted connectedness to the land throughout every season. His writing is exquisite, and by use of all of his senses he transports his readers to that English meadow in Herefordshire. In an age when so many books about the earth are bleak and leave readers with a feeling of despair, Lewis-Stemple manages to addresses ecological concerns, but keeps the focus on celebrating the beauty and natural rhythms of his field.
I dog-eared at least 3 dozen pages and underlined numerous passages so I could easily find them in the future. As a closing thought, I will share the following:
"To stand alone in a field in England and listen to the morning chorus of the birds is to remember why life is precious...I will proselytize on behalf of the dawn chorus. If you rise at dawn in May you can savour the world before the pandemonium din of the Industrial Revolution and 24/7 shopping...There's an evening chorus too, and it is best enjoyed on a day like this, when the light is seductive in white veils, and there is enough moisture in the dusk air to intensify the floral incense of the spring meadow...Oh, the joy to be alive in England, in Meadowland, once May is here."
August 4, 2022
"It is not the sight or sound of badgers mating that is remarkable. It is the cloud of rank musk, overpowering at even twenty yards downwind, that the act unleashes. If you have smelt it you will know why badgers are related to skunks."
What a rather excellent quote to begin this review. I had no idea badgers made such a stink while doing the deed, but now I do, so thankyou, John Lewis-Stempel. Great stuff indeed.
This book was a gentle and winding journey, month by month, into the life of an English farmer. It is obvious that the author loves his meadow, and the wildlife that thrives in it, and this is evident as you read further. To be honest, when I first spotted this book in Waterstones, I did wonder how it would be possible to write an entire book talking about a meadow. To say I am humbled, would be an understatement.
This was a wonderful experience, and nature writing at it's finest. It is amazing what wildlife you observe when you're allowed to sit quietly for a moment. Sometimes I think life hurtles by us so incredibly fast, that we forget about the accessible beauty that is all around us.
What a rather excellent quote to begin this review. I had no idea badgers made such a stink while doing the deed, but now I do, so thankyou, John Lewis-Stempel. Great stuff indeed.
This book was a gentle and winding journey, month by month, into the life of an English farmer. It is obvious that the author loves his meadow, and the wildlife that thrives in it, and this is evident as you read further. To be honest, when I first spotted this book in Waterstones, I did wonder how it would be possible to write an entire book talking about a meadow. To say I am humbled, would be an understatement.
This was a wonderful experience, and nature writing at it's finest. It is amazing what wildlife you observe when you're allowed to sit quietly for a moment. Sometimes I think life hurtles by us so incredibly fast, that we forget about the accessible beauty that is all around us.
November 30, 2015
(4.5) “John Clare found his poems in a field. Sometimes I find words. There is nothing like working land for growing and reaping lines of prose.” Lewis-Stempel is a proper third-generation Herefordshire farmer, but also a naturalist with a poet’s eye. His day job might involve shooting rabbits, cutting hay and delivering lambs, but he still finds the time to notice and appreciate wildlife. He knows his field’s flowers, insects and birds as well as he knows his cows; he gets quiet and close enough to the ground to watch a shrew devouring beetles.
After Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks, this is my second favorite nature book read this year. It’s similar to a couple others I read but works much better. For instance, it’s a rough chronological diary of a year in the meadow, but unlike Mark Cocker’s Claxton it doesn’t keep slavishly to its schedule or read like a bunch of short entries pieced together. Whereas Rob Cowen’s Common Ground anthropomorphized animal life, Lewis-Stempel never forgets he is one in a diversity of species.
June and July are stand-out chapters with some truly magical moments. One Midsummer’s Eve his three horses and donkey trotted out and started prancing around him in a fairy circle. Another time his daughter went missing and he found her fast asleep in a pile of placid pigs. When his mower broke on a stone, he had to cut the hay by hand, returning him to a centuries-gone model of hard labor.
And all delivered in the most lovely prose. Here are a few samples:
After Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks, this is my second favorite nature book read this year. It’s similar to a couple others I read but works much better. For instance, it’s a rough chronological diary of a year in the meadow, but unlike Mark Cocker’s Claxton it doesn’t keep slavishly to its schedule or read like a bunch of short entries pieced together. Whereas Rob Cowen’s Common Ground anthropomorphized animal life, Lewis-Stempel never forgets he is one in a diversity of species.
June and July are stand-out chapters with some truly magical moments. One Midsummer’s Eve his three horses and donkey trotted out and started prancing around him in a fairy circle. Another time his daughter went missing and he found her fast asleep in a pile of placid pigs. When his mower broke on a stone, he had to cut the hay by hand, returning him to a centuries-gone model of hard labor.
And all delivered in the most lovely prose. Here are a few samples:
The dew, trapped in the webs of countless money spiders, has skeined the entire field in tiny silken pocket squares, gnomes’ handkerchiefs dropped in the sward.
I fret eschatalogically about the curlews, as though it is their migratory wingbeats that turn the earth, and should they fail to appear we will have entered some ecological end time. But they are home, home to breed.
To stand alone in a field in England and listen to the morning chorus of the birds is to remember why life is precious.
A crow rows through the sky. Wasps soporifically suck on blackberries.
February 22, 2025
This is a gorgeous homage to the traditional English meadow. I was trying to read this book slowly and follow Lewis-Stempel through his year on the Lower Meadow of his home in Herefordshire. However, I could only stretch it out two months because it's such a pleasure to read. Lewis-Stempel is a man of the land and a poet at heart. He spends so much time walking the night meadow that I half expected him to turn into a werewolf by the end of the year.
I learnt so much about English flora and fauna reading Meadowland
I learnt so much about English flora and fauna reading Meadowland
April 16, 2016
It just looks like a regular field. It has a hedge around it, and it is full of grass with some muddy patches near the feeding troughs and the gate.
And you would think that is it. But it isn’t, trust me on this, it really isn’t. This field is teeming with life.
There are the red kites feasting on wild and domesticated animals, the badgers that patrol the field, the playful fox cubs, the hidden moles, visible only from their mounds, that try and consume the thousands of earthworms that populate the soil and the beasts that he rears for market. But the star of this book is the grasses and plants that populate his field, and the insect and bird life it supports. Where he is in Hereford, it is fortunate that it has not suffered from the effects of the industrial farming process that other parts of the country have, and the diversity of the wildlife in his field is greater than it would be elsewhere. But his land has not been immune to change; there have been some losses, such as the corncrake, and there are no doubt others.
Through his lyrical and occasionally poetic prose, Lewis-Stempel really brings his unspoilt small patch of England into crystal clear focus. Written as diary entries through a single year, he writes about other events and local characters that orbit and swirl though his life, about the history of the lands around, as well as the weather, a hugely important factor for any farmer. He has an eye for detail too; this book is full of the minutiae of the things happening in this field, from the differences and textures of the grasses to the way that everything is interdependent and reliant on each other all the way up and down the food chain. He uses the phrase, "a lawn is a meadow in captivity,” which is a perfect way of summing up the difference between a natural environment left to its own devices, and finds a balance, and that which is controlled and suppressed, and is deficient in so much life.
Lewis-Stempel’s passion for this land, his land is apparent all the way through the book. If you want to understand just how complex a simple meadow actually is, this is well worth reading.
And you would think that is it. But it isn’t, trust me on this, it really isn’t. This field is teeming with life.
There are the red kites feasting on wild and domesticated animals, the badgers that patrol the field, the playful fox cubs, the hidden moles, visible only from their mounds, that try and consume the thousands of earthworms that populate the soil and the beasts that he rears for market. But the star of this book is the grasses and plants that populate his field, and the insect and bird life it supports. Where he is in Hereford, it is fortunate that it has not suffered from the effects of the industrial farming process that other parts of the country have, and the diversity of the wildlife in his field is greater than it would be elsewhere. But his land has not been immune to change; there have been some losses, such as the corncrake, and there are no doubt others.
Through his lyrical and occasionally poetic prose, Lewis-Stempel really brings his unspoilt small patch of England into crystal clear focus. Written as diary entries through a single year, he writes about other events and local characters that orbit and swirl though his life, about the history of the lands around, as well as the weather, a hugely important factor for any farmer. He has an eye for detail too; this book is full of the minutiae of the things happening in this field, from the differences and textures of the grasses to the way that everything is interdependent and reliant on each other all the way up and down the food chain. He uses the phrase, "a lawn is a meadow in captivity,” which is a perfect way of summing up the difference between a natural environment left to its own devices, and finds a balance, and that which is controlled and suppressed, and is deficient in so much life.
Lewis-Stempel’s passion for this land, his land is apparent all the way through the book. If you want to understand just how complex a simple meadow actually is, this is well worth reading.
November 25, 2019
Beautiful, beautiful nature writing, and lovely illustrations.
May 13, 2015
All back-cover blurbs be damned, this really is one of those rare and precious things, a remarkable book.
Herefordshire farmer and historian John Lewis-Stempel gives us a year in the life of an ancient hedge-ringed meadow on his family farm with all its flora, fauna, and meteorological visitations. If this sounds to you like a dull sort of story, you’re mistaken. All the dramas and wonders of human and animal life play themselves out in this space. Lewis-Stempel writes like an adult, with prose that’s compact and earthy and rarely showy. He gives us his subject through the lens not only of the farmer and historian but of the naturalist, philologist, and folklorist as well. As you approach the book’s end you feel it loop back upon itself into a circle. In its totality it becomes a sort of prayer or an act of adoration.
Though published a couple years ago in the UK, Meadlowland is so far unavailable here in the former American colonies. I had to order my copy from England, but it was worth the extra shipping. Britain has a long and rich tradition of nature writing, but in my opinion Lewis-Stempel’s Meadowland need not blush to find itself on the same shelf as Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne or Walton’s Compleat Angler.
Herefordshire farmer and historian John Lewis-Stempel gives us a year in the life of an ancient hedge-ringed meadow on his family farm with all its flora, fauna, and meteorological visitations. If this sounds to you like a dull sort of story, you’re mistaken. All the dramas and wonders of human and animal life play themselves out in this space. Lewis-Stempel writes like an adult, with prose that’s compact and earthy and rarely showy. He gives us his subject through the lens not only of the farmer and historian but of the naturalist, philologist, and folklorist as well. As you approach the book’s end you feel it loop back upon itself into a circle. In its totality it becomes a sort of prayer or an act of adoration.
Though published a couple years ago in the UK, Meadlowland is so far unavailable here in the former American colonies. I had to order my copy from England, but it was worth the extra shipping. Britain has a long and rich tradition of nature writing, but in my opinion Lewis-Stempel’s Meadowland need not blush to find itself on the same shelf as Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne or Walton’s Compleat Angler.
July 23, 2018
An intimate look into an English farmer's life - a world I'll never be privy to in real life, but now I have experienced a whole season in a meadow in Herfordshire thanks to Lewis-Stempel. He peppers his daily observations about the birds, insects, flowers, and vegetation in his field with poetry, history, little scraps of notes he made while out working, and the current situation with farming in England and climate change. I imagine him sitting down every other day at the end of the day to jot down his thoughts, then before he bounds his notes, before a diary becomes a draft for a book to be submitted, bolsters it with everything else - the history and the poetry and the research. I read it every night, just a few days of his life, to bring myself, even just for a moment, to a beautiful day in the meadow. It was a beautiful experience.
September 5, 2018
A lovely twelve month journal any nature lover would appreciate.
November 17, 2018
If you want to read a book about a piece of land where the writer is truly in love with that piece of land then this is the book for you. So many people will probably come across a meadow and see only a field, so few are going to see things through the eyes of John Lewis-Stempel. His knowledge of all the types of animals, flowers, bugs and even grasses is incredible. Whenever I read a nature book I try to remember one thing and then go and identify it in the wild, this time around I am focusing on the awesome sounding "Wolf Spider" I get them in my garden and will now be able to identify them as I save my wife and eldest daughter from being eaten alive by one of them.
You can't help but compare this book with Roger Deakin's Notes from Walnut Tree Farm and whilst they are a similar blend of nature, musings, poetry and life on the farm each author has such a strong voice they feel so different. Deakin wrote a lot of his book whilst sat at his desk indoors, John Lewis-Stempel is outside in the meadow for the whole of the book. The level of detail in this book is greater too, who knew there was so much life in a cow pat.
Blog post is here> https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2018...
You can't help but compare this book with Roger Deakin's Notes from Walnut Tree Farm and whilst they are a similar blend of nature, musings, poetry and life on the farm each author has such a strong voice they feel so different. Deakin wrote a lot of his book whilst sat at his desk indoors, John Lewis-Stempel is outside in the meadow for the whole of the book. The level of detail in this book is greater too, who knew there was so much life in a cow pat.
Blog post is here> https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2018...
August 5, 2014
I really love good nature writing like this.
Maybe you'd think nothing really happens in a meadow during a year that could ever fill a book - you'd be so wrong.
Lewis Stempel is a farmer (with all the practicalities that role brings) and a nature lover. The two don't always go hand in hand.
He fully admits that he has a 'spiritual connection' with his land that has nothing to do with religion. On a beautiful summer's evening, as he walks in his meadow, he says that there couldn't be enough evenings like this in the whole of eternity to satisfy him.
I like the way he is so easily distracted from his chores (fence mending etc) in that he will stay motionless for hours to observe the animals and birds all around him. Very few of us have the patience for that - but then again he sees things that the rest of us would miss.
When one of his much loved cows dies in the field (naturally, of old age) he gently and respectfully covers her head with an old feed bag to stop the crows attacking her - I think that says more about him than any words could.
Beautifully written. Recommended.
Maybe you'd think nothing really happens in a meadow during a year that could ever fill a book - you'd be so wrong.
Lewis Stempel is a farmer (with all the practicalities that role brings) and a nature lover. The two don't always go hand in hand.
He fully admits that he has a 'spiritual connection' with his land that has nothing to do with religion. On a beautiful summer's evening, as he walks in his meadow, he says that there couldn't be enough evenings like this in the whole of eternity to satisfy him.
I like the way he is so easily distracted from his chores (fence mending etc) in that he will stay motionless for hours to observe the animals and birds all around him. Very few of us have the patience for that - but then again he sees things that the rest of us would miss.
When one of his much loved cows dies in the field (naturally, of old age) he gently and respectfully covers her head with an old feed bag to stop the crows attacking her - I think that says more about him than any words could.
Beautifully written. Recommended.
May 1, 2015
Some writing is so beautiful that I am gripped with an urge to read sections out loud, just so that I can hear the jewel-like words as well as see them, somehow maximizing the pleasure and sharing the joy with others. This is one such book. Vividly described, and wonderfully written, Meadowland gives a unique and intimate account of an English meadow’s life from January to December.
John Lewis-Stempel’s passionate love for his land comes through as he describes the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn. Through his affinity with nature we get to know the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren, the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others. We fall in love ourselves with the rustling grasses and winter-rattling leaves.
This is no flowery, romanticised ode to nature though, it is steeped in the harsh realities of life and death in the wild – and is all the more evocative and touching for it. This is a book to fall in love with and read again and again and again.
John Lewis-Stempel’s passionate love for his land comes through as he describes the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn. Through his affinity with nature we get to know the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren, the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others. We fall in love ourselves with the rustling grasses and winter-rattling leaves.
This is no flowery, romanticised ode to nature though, it is steeped in the harsh realities of life and death in the wild – and is all the more evocative and touching for it. This is a book to fall in love with and read again and again and again.
July 31, 2018
A lovely book. I think the idea of a 'micro' approach to nature, concentrating on a single field is a really effective way of revealing through the seasons the different wildlife responses to a changing environment. What we learn is just how adaptable nature is despite the genuine fears that we have for the planet in the face of climate change deniers like Trump and his ilk and the morons in the 'Atlantic Bridge' wing of the UK Conservative Party.
Stempel has written a number of high quality nature books, but in my estimation this is the best. I shall take away the thought that every corner of our world, however humble, has its own dynamics and is important in its own right. Sometimes we look and do not see the daily dramas played out on just one patch of earth. Even hoary old professional conservationists like me need reminding from time to time of the wonders all around us. Read this and regain your senses.
Stempel has written a number of high quality nature books, but in my estimation this is the best. I shall take away the thought that every corner of our world, however humble, has its own dynamics and is important in its own right. Sometimes we look and do not see the daily dramas played out on just one patch of earth. Even hoary old professional conservationists like me need reminding from time to time of the wonders all around us. Read this and regain your senses.
August 21, 2017
"The old ways do not seem so mad in an ancient landscape where I can barely see one electric light,and I can hold in my cupped hand the eternal peace of night."
This book is so beautifully written that I know I will be tracking down his other books.
This book is so beautifully written that I know I will be tracking down his other books.
Read
October 25, 2017"Eternity would not be long enough if it was composed of English summer eves like this."
A year in the life of one unremarkable, magical Herefordshire field, as told by the man who farms it. There's a fashionable hot take which decries modern nature writing as the recreation of jaded urbanites, but his family have been on this land for generations, and here he combines that deep relationship with the more usual miscellany of quotes, folklore, history and observations. From ire at the cruelties of modern farming (as when the law forbids burying a dead cow in the field she grazed), to an eerie yet joyful experience at Midsummer, this is about as close as one can approach to the whole picture. I made a point of only reading it outdoors, in places at least approaching nature, and even before reading the final stretch in tough times I'd sometimes find I'd read a page without directly recalling a bit of it. But this is no criticism; rather, testament to how well the writing blends with the hum, low and cheep of the world it describes.
A year in the life of one unremarkable, magical Herefordshire field, as told by the man who farms it. There's a fashionable hot take which decries modern nature writing as the recreation of jaded urbanites, but his family have been on this land for generations, and here he combines that deep relationship with the more usual miscellany of quotes, folklore, history and observations. From ire at the cruelties of modern farming (as when the law forbids burying a dead cow in the field she grazed), to an eerie yet joyful experience at Midsummer, this is about as close as one can approach to the whole picture. I made a point of only reading it outdoors, in places at least approaching nature, and even before reading the final stretch in tough times I'd sometimes find I'd read a page without directly recalling a bit of it. But this is no criticism; rather, testament to how well the writing blends with the hum, low and cheep of the world it describes.
June 26, 2015
When I heard that this book was chosen over Helen MacDonald's H is for Hawk for the Thwaites Wainwright prize, I had to read it. This cannot be a rational review, as the neurons in several parts of this nature lover's brain kept triggering the release of pleasure-neurotransmitters sentence after sentence. John Lewis-Stempel uses farmer's tales, poetry, Middle English words, folklore and history to describe birds, mammals, insects, plants and the night sky observed in a year in a Herefordshire meadow. The birder in me couldn't help noting down the bird list (Snipe, wren, robin, chaffinch, heron, buzzard, red kite, curlew, redwing, blue tit, great tit, dipper, blackcap, chiffchaff,swallow, swift, house Martin, yellow wagtail, raven, longtailed tit, meadow pippit, skylark, sparrow hawk , kestrel, tawny owl, merganser, great crested grebe,...) only to realise that he does the same in the last page. I can certainly see the world thro' his eyes!
July 2, 2023
What a great read!
In this crazy time when I can't focus on fiction, novels, and least of all, romances, this book has literally saved me from a massive reading slump...
I listened to it in my native Polish, and thank God for that, as the many fauna and flora names would've overwhelmed me totally! The life of a meadow is truly a rich one!
The book was narrated by one of the all-time favourite Polish 'voices' - Krystyna Czubówna, whom my countrymen indisputably associate with many nature documentaries and that was spot-on! I fell in love with this wonderful little universe... :)
The book was fascinating even for me, a linguist and language teacher, because it explained the etymology of the English plant and animal names, some Welsh/English customary names and even the names and customs of some traditional farming festivities and events.
I didn't expect to find this 'liguistic' side of the story! And I loved it!
I'll definitely continue with John Lewis-Stempel's other works about this huge/little world of nature :)
In this crazy time when I can't focus on fiction, novels, and least of all, romances, this book has literally saved me from a massive reading slump...
I listened to it in my native Polish, and thank God for that, as the many fauna and flora names would've overwhelmed me totally! The life of a meadow is truly a rich one!
The book was narrated by one of the all-time favourite Polish 'voices' - Krystyna Czubówna, whom my countrymen indisputably associate with many nature documentaries and that was spot-on! I fell in love with this wonderful little universe... :)
The book was fascinating even for me, a linguist and language teacher, because it explained the etymology of the English plant and animal names, some Welsh/English customary names and even the names and customs of some traditional farming festivities and events.
I didn't expect to find this 'liguistic' side of the story! And I loved it!
I'll definitely continue with John Lewis-Stempel's other works about this huge/little world of nature :)
December 10, 2016
Wonderful nature writing that brought me back to all the books I loved as a child: Gerald Durrell, James Herriot, Richard Adams and Joy Adamson.
He writes about the year, from month to month, of the intimate life of one meadow on the border of Wales and England, not far from where I grew up and rambled around in the countryside.
He has the eyes of a child, the inclinations of a farmer and the patience of a old-time naturalist.
This isn't at all fluffy; sometimes nature "is red in tooth and claw"
All in all a very satisfying little book.
He writes about the year, from month to month, of the intimate life of one meadow on the border of Wales and England, not far from where I grew up and rambled around in the countryside.
He has the eyes of a child, the inclinations of a farmer and the patience of a old-time naturalist.
This isn't at all fluffy; sometimes nature "is red in tooth and claw"
All in all a very satisfying little book.
June 26, 2019
Nature and Wildlife Non Fiction is my go to choice but this book is "bitty", poetic (which I hate) and written by someone who blasts wildlife out of the sky with a shotgun and has a history of fox hunting. Of all the nature books I've read this isn't up there with the best
October 7, 2017
Piękna książka o przyrodzie, w której główną bohaterką jest angielsko-walijska łąka. Cudne. Na pewno będę wracać, zwłaszcza, że wydanie jest prześliczne - te rycinki i szlaczki <3
Dziękuję za prezent Lobo i Negatywce, trafiłyście dokładnie w mój gust :)
Dziękuję za prezent Lobo i Negatywce, trafiłyście dokładnie w mój gust :)
September 3, 2024
Das englische Wort Meadow bezeichnet ein Stück Land oder eine Wiese, das nur als Futterquelle genutzt wird. John Lewis-Stempel nimmt seine Leser mit auf eine Reise dieses Stücks Land durch das Jahr. Einer seiner Begleiter ist ein Dachs, den er als eines der ersten Tiere im Januar sieht. Viel passiert nicht in dem ungewöhnlich kalten Monat. Erst spät kommen die ersten Schneeglöckchen und schließlich auch ein Eisvogel. Auch der nächste Monat ist eher karg, viel tut sich noch nicht. Die Wiese muss sich erst noch ein wenig erholen.
Im Frühjahr wird es lebendiger und lauter: Vögel singen, um einen Partner zu finden, die Nächte werden länger und Maulwürfe und junge Füchse erobern die Wiese. Im Sommer verändert sich wieder etwas: der Gesang der Vögel wird vom Summen der Insekten abgelöst. Die kleinen Füchse werden größer. Im August steht das Leben fast still, die Hitze des Monats schläfert alles ein. Plötzlich ist der Herbst da, die ersten Vögel verlassen die Wiese und es wird still. Der Indian Summer im Oktober hält die graue Jahreszeit noch ein bisschen auf, aber der November kommt mir großen Schritten und plötzlich ist es Dezember und das Jahr auf der Wiese ist vorbei.
Ich hätte Johns Familie und seine Wiese gerne noch ein weiteres Jahr begleitet, aber er belässt es bei einem. Aber wer sagt denn, dass sein Buch mich nicht im nächsten Jahr begleiten kann?
Im Frühjahr wird es lebendiger und lauter: Vögel singen, um einen Partner zu finden, die Nächte werden länger und Maulwürfe und junge Füchse erobern die Wiese. Im Sommer verändert sich wieder etwas: der Gesang der Vögel wird vom Summen der Insekten abgelöst. Die kleinen Füchse werden größer. Im August steht das Leben fast still, die Hitze des Monats schläfert alles ein. Plötzlich ist der Herbst da, die ersten Vögel verlassen die Wiese und es wird still. Der Indian Summer im Oktober hält die graue Jahreszeit noch ein bisschen auf, aber der November kommt mir großen Schritten und plötzlich ist es Dezember und das Jahr auf der Wiese ist vorbei.
Ich hätte Johns Familie und seine Wiese gerne noch ein weiteres Jahr begleitet, aber er belässt es bei einem. Aber wer sagt denn, dass sein Buch mich nicht im nächsten Jahr begleiten kann?
June 11, 2020
I loved this look at the flora and fauna of an English meadow, so much so that I would put it down for long stretches before picking it up again, just to draw out and savor author John Lewis-Stempel's observations of life as a farmer in a field whose summer hay he cut by hand. The book is set up as a diary, month-to-month, so the reader observes the seasonal changes of the meadow and the animals and birds and insects that inhabit it. There is also a lot of fascinating history, myth, and folklore, from Saxon laws regarding cattle farming to the Neolithic cult that once worshipped the green woodpecker; from "country lore" and Shakespearean references about demon owls and death owls, to Welsh mythical tales about the value and sacred nature of meadowsweet. This is so beautifully written that I have already ordered two of his other books - The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland and The Wood: The Life & Times of Cockshutt Wood. Sadly for me, only published in Great Britain, although that also means beautiful covers and illustrations when they do arrive. The list of references at the back, "A Meadowland Library of Books and Music: a List Raisonné," sent me scurrying to add to my own book lists.
My favorite passage - you can just picture it:
"The mist wanders away, to be replaced by an exhilarating week of hoar frosts and blue skies, and the barking of a fox at the crescent, hunstman's moon. Venus is out in the sky even before the sun goes down over the mountain. Then it snows at night" (265).
My favorite passage - you can just picture it:
"The mist wanders away, to be replaced by an exhilarating week of hoar frosts and blue skies, and the barking of a fox at the crescent, hunstman's moon. Venus is out in the sky even before the sun goes down over the mountain. Then it snows at night" (265).
October 12, 2022
John Lewis-Stempel is a British Wendell Berry.
Confession: I didn't like this much when I began. Because. I felt so dumb reading it. Every reference to a plant or animal I didn't know was a red light while I looked it up. When I decided to swim in the tide of Lewis-Stempel's lovely prose without halting to learn facts, I began to relish this book.
What's not to love? There is history; his family has lived in Herefordshire for over 700 years. Stop and ponder that for one sweet minute. He is well-read, articulate, lyrical, informative, charming, and humble. It is not about him; the focus is on the field.
His alliteration is luscious! ...the slough of the sledge is the only slander in the moonlight. And Anthropomorphizing moles is an ancient meme.
Reading this book is a master class on observation.
Illustrations by Micaela Alcaino are exquisite.
Confession: I didn't like this much when I began. Because. I felt so dumb reading it. Every reference to a plant or animal I didn't know was a red light while I looked it up. When I decided to swim in the tide of Lewis-Stempel's lovely prose without halting to learn facts, I began to relish this book.
What's not to love? There is history; his family has lived in Herefordshire for over 700 years. Stop and ponder that for one sweet minute. He is well-read, articulate, lyrical, informative, charming, and humble. It is not about him; the focus is on the field.
His alliteration is luscious! ...the slough of the sledge is the only slander in the moonlight. And Anthropomorphizing moles is an ancient meme.
Reading this book is a master class on observation.
Illustrations by Micaela Alcaino are exquisite.
December 9, 2015
Quite simply, this is some of the most gorgeous prose I have read for a long time.
Just when the British have been castigated for their parochial reading habits, what could be more parochial than an entire book about a single field? But by concentrating on such a small area John Lewis-Stempel gives us so much - not just the flora and fauna, but also the seasons, weather, the farming year and nature in all its muddy visceral fragile breathtaking beauty. From the worms in the soil to the birds soaring overhead, by the end of Meadowland you feel that you really know this tiny patch of England on the Welsh border and all its inhabitants.
We have been spoilt recently with some exceptional nature writing and this is right up there. It's a worthy winner of the Wainwright Prize - and I was very lucky to win a copy on Twitter from the National Trust.
Just when the British have been castigated for their parochial reading habits, what could be more parochial than an entire book about a single field? But by concentrating on such a small area John Lewis-Stempel gives us so much - not just the flora and fauna, but also the seasons, weather, the farming year and nature in all its muddy visceral fragile breathtaking beauty. From the worms in the soil to the birds soaring overhead, by the end of Meadowland you feel that you really know this tiny patch of England on the Welsh border and all its inhabitants.
We have been spoilt recently with some exceptional nature writing and this is right up there. It's a worthy winner of the Wainwright Prize - and I was very lucky to win a copy on Twitter from the National Trust.
June 16, 2019
This is the kind of nature writing I like. It is simply observation from a farmer’s hill farm and it was a joy. I have friends who farm in Devon, whose farm is very similar to the one described in this book. It makes it very easy to visualise the setting.
We read the author’s observations in chronological order as he takes us through the months from January to December. I loved the way he talks about nature. It is full of wonder and awe without being overly flowery. He does not skim the more ugly side of nature, such as death. I realised that although I may not like reading about dead animal babies, it is part of the cycle of life and we cannot pretend it does not happen.
I loved this easy-to-read nature diary and if you like ‘a slice of nature life’ type books, I am confident you will as well. I will be reading more from John Lewis-Stempel in the future for sure.
We read the author’s observations in chronological order as he takes us through the months from January to December. I loved the way he talks about nature. It is full of wonder and awe without being overly flowery. He does not skim the more ugly side of nature, such as death. I realised that although I may not like reading about dead animal babies, it is part of the cycle of life and we cannot pretend it does not happen.
I loved this easy-to-read nature diary and if you like ‘a slice of nature life’ type books, I am confident you will as well. I will be reading more from John Lewis-Stempel in the future for sure.
June 14, 2015
Absolutely wonderful. I spent a month on a farm in Wales a few years back & I was taken back to that time when I wandered around the fields there. I am immensely jealous of the writer spending his time observing the changing seasons. Very clear that the poet John Clare has a big influence & the writing is so poetic. A very simple idea but so beautifully executed. I love nature, the birds, animals & plants & this book was totally me. Seeing the wonderful in the ordinary. Making jewels out of every day situations in this glorious meadow. I loved this book.
March 12, 2023
I found this tiresome book to be full of reactionary and classist attitudes about the British countryside and those who would seek to access it. The author - who seems to see himself as some moral gatekeeper of rural Britain - thankfully has no more right to nature in this country than any of us.
In terms of the writing: it seems unwise to consistently quote from better works alongside your own - in my opinion - overwrought and purple prose. Paragraphs of dull observations grasp for a higher meaning that never reveals itself. So we just get paragraphs of dull observations.
In terms of the writing: it seems unwise to consistently quote from better works alongside your own - in my opinion - overwrought and purple prose. Paragraphs of dull observations grasp for a higher meaning that never reveals itself. So we just get paragraphs of dull observations.
September 24, 2021
For anyone who loves the countryside and farming this is nothing less than wonderful. The contents are laid out in a month by month view of what Lewis-Stempel encounters during working and walking his land.
To finish it contains one of the most readable bibliographies yet.
Highly recommended.
To finish it contains one of the most readable bibliographies yet.
Highly recommended.
November 27, 2021
Beautiful, gentle, thoughtful book that focuses on detail, the small changes in one meadow from month to month.
October 19, 2024
Jest to urodziwa proza, sprawiająca dużo przyjemności, a autor ma dar obserwacji i potrafi swoje spostrzeżenia ująć w smaczne, pełne życia zdania. Po przeczytaniu mam wrażenie, że wyostrzyły mi się zmysły i z większą łatwością zauważam detale cudzego roślinnego i zwierzęcego istnienia wokół. Tłumacz niekoniecznie podziela uwielbienie przyrody autora, tłumacząc wielokrotnie słowo "dead" jako zdechły. Zdechły rudzik? Jeśli ktoś widział nieżywego ptaka śpiewającego, to wie, że określenie "zdechły" jest nie na miejscu. Autor nie szczędzi nam też brutalnych, naturalistycznych detali: łąka jest miejscem nie tylko bujnego i rozmaitego życia, ale też często gwałtownej śmierci w stylu kina gore. W końcu jest to piewca przyrody i myśliwy jednocześnie, który na jednej stronie strzela do bażanta i cytuje Williama Blake'a w ramach pokazania, że ma pewne wyrzuty sumienia. Rzuca też tu i ówdzie tak dziaderskie uwagi (ulubione wątki: seksizm i klasizm z wyraźną nostalgią za dawnymi dobrymi czasami), że trochę przyjemności z lektury to odbiera. Przeszkadzają nie tyle antropomorfizacje zwierząt, co styl, w jakim autor to robi: samice strzyżyka są płytkie jak poszukiwaczki męża-piłkarza Premier League etc. Pisze też kilka razy, że jakieś zwierzę jest niegłupie, tak jakby domyślnie wszystkie uznawał za głupie z definicji. Musi też odpowiednio dużo razy wspomnieć, że jego rodzina mieszka tu od 900 lat i bujała się na dworze Elżbiety I. Ale to co naprawdę przypieczętowało we mnie poczucie, że nigdy się nie dogadamy, to to, co pisze o przekwitłych mniszkach lekarskich. Porównuje dmuchawce do łupieżu i zaznacza, że to jest moment, kiedy łąka nie wygląda ładnie. Dawno nie słyszałam większej bzdury. I te słowa spłynęły z pióra człowieka, który często chodzi na łakę w nocy, musiał zatem widzieć, jak tajemniczo i pięknie wyglądają jasne główki dmuchawców w ciemności rozświetlonej wiosennym księżycem. To jest gorsze, niż gdy porównuje namioty turystów na łące sąsiada do psa wypróżniającego się na perski dywan. Mimo to jest to pięknie napisane, wielokrotnie urzekające kalendarium literacko- przyrodnicze, a opisy ręcznego koszenia łąki i towarzyszącego mu stanu niemal upojenia bardzo mi się podobały, może dlatego, że podzielam miłość do aromatu ściętej trawy.
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