This was a rambly (in a good way) natural history (and history history) of the author's patch of woods in the Chiltern hills of England. It cover lots of topics: trees, fungi, moths, mammals, mosses, people, and more.
[Audiobook note: As a bonus, it was read by one of my absolute favorite narrators, Michael Page. The content and his style are a perfect match.] ( )

Not yet read

When I grow up I want to be like Richard Fortey.

I noted early on that when I first started reading this book I thought I would grow bored of reading about the natural history of a forest in the UK. Boy was I wrong.

I loved this book because, if you know me, or at least are friends with me on FB, you know how much I like taking photos of the flora and fauna that inhabit our back yard. If I had my druthers, I would stay home and catalog it, learn to draw it, and explore the inner workings of how it all creates an ecology behind our garage and under the 100 year old oak tree with it's beautiful canopy.

My intention fresh out of high school as a newly minted freshman at the University of Michigan was to major in the biological sciences or failing that, paleontology. Well, that never happened and now I sit here with a Russian Language and Literature degree that has no relevance to what I currently do, event planning for a 5 star hotel here in my hometown. All the same, nature and natural history still hold a fascination for me and Richard Fortey, the now retired British paleontologist, formerly of Oxford University has written a book that encompasses the natural history and human history of Grim's Dyke Wood, a small forest that he and his wife, Jackie, purchased in 2011.

He is a captivating writer with a dry wit and seemingly natural aptitude for describing his explorations in minute detail. The story, or rather history, is told in vignettes, roughly starting with the earliest history of the area to modern times. Each chapter is a month, starting with April and proceeding through the year. The vignettes weave the story of the seasonal flora and fauna, human habitation and exploitation of Grim's Dyke Wood and the area that surrounds the wood and the impact it has and has had over time. At the end of it all the story he tells is a continuous and seamless whole.

Books like this one lead me to explore other interests and to find other books, which I already have. I am also inspired to take more photos, take more notes and find out more about the little patch of wilderness in my own backyard. ( )

I used to regularly walk and bird a certain path, through a prairie back to a wide, shallow wetland. After a few years, I had landmarks in my head: that's the Olive-Sided Flycatcher tree; that's the pond where the loon was once; the Black-Crowned Night Herons like to sit over there; this is the Chickadee Woods, and if I'm lucky, the Ospreys might be on their nest. It was like the bar in Cheers: "where everybody knows your name." Or, well, I knew theirs and liked to think maybe some of them recognized me and my dog. So I've always loved the idea of knowing a place so intimately that you know what all the trees are, when the pussy-willows bloom, and where the Red-Headed Woodpeckers swoop. Richard Fortey, after a lifetime of scrutinizing the stony remains of creatures that no longe exist as chief paleontologist of the magisterial Natural History Museum in London, decided it was time to get outside into the living world. He and his wife bought four acres of beech woods, and he settled into learning everything and everyone who lived there. He begins with the spring, figuring out what all those fetal greenlings are that start to poke up out of the leaf litter, and takes us through the year - and through the millennia as well. He counts the trees - and has an elegant cabinet hand-made from a fallen wild cherry tree. He captures moths at night and identifies them by the shape of the fringe on their antennae. He turns over logs and tells us that the tiny orange speckles are a sort of fungus. A bug he doesn't know? He pops it in a jar, gets on the train to London and has his friend the entomologist have a peek and give it its name. It's charming, fascinating - his own curiosity and erudition make it irresistible to look over his shoulder as he stoops down and says, "Oh, look at this!" Fortey credits his wife for the sections on the human history: the landowners, knights, charcoal-burners, and eccentric spinsters who have owned or crossed his wood through the centuries, and the history of his village is intriguing. While I myself am hooked by the history of the 100-year-old house I live in, it may not be as interesting to others, so I found some of this aspect a bit too long. Fortey's friendly ramble will appeal to those who like to turn over rocks and wonder what that many-legged critter is that scurries out, or who find joy in patting the smooth gray bark of a beech tree. He is the companion you would like to have on those outings. ( )

The Wood for the Trees: One Man’s Long View of Nature - Fortey
4 stars

Richard Fortney is a British paleontologist and author. This book is an ongoing journal of a yearlong study of several acres of beech and bluebell wood that he bought after retiring from his position at the British Museum. Each chapter is devoted to a month of the year. Fortey discusses his observations of the botany, biology, and geology of the woodland. He researches the human history of the surrounding area and discusses the ecological issues facing the woodland in the future.

I thought this book was very engaging and readable, in small doses. Each ‘month’ was divided into a variety of sub-topics of two or three pages in length. Such a wide variety of topics; ‘Nettle Fertilizer’, ‘Chanterelle Potatoes’, ‘Saved by the Chair’, ‘Rot and Renewal’. A plethora of trivia: for example, necessary culling and cutting of the Lambeth beeches was made marginally profitable by the demand for Potterish toy broomsticks. Or, did you know that collected deer droppings can be incubated to sprout a variety of microscopic fungi ? Fortey makes it all interesting and occasionally funny with extremely bad, but irresistible puns. This book reminded me of what I used read on lunch breaks, magazine articles from Smithsonian and Natural History magazines. Not a good book to get lost in for hours at a time, but great for a coffee break.

I had the audiobook which is read beautifully by Michael Page, but it is much better to have the text for maps, photography, and other illustrations. ( )