This is more of a biography than a natural history book, and that is no bad thing.

John Bunting was a well known sculptor and artist, and this book is his daughter trying to find out about her father by using the lens of 'The Plot' a small parcel of land in the Yorkshire Dales, and considering aspects of his life in this context.

On this plot his built from scratch a small chapel as he was a devout catholic. There was also another small building that was modestly furnished. This was what he used as his place to contemplate the world. She considers her father through the subjects of national and local history, landscape and wars. He was a difficult, driven and focused man, who had a unique talent with regards to sculpture.

The book reminds me of the Hare with Amber Eyes, which was a family history seen through small netsuke, and The Story of England which is the history of a nation seen through the lens of a single village in England.

A good book, and one to re read to un-peel the complex layers of her father. ( )