Rewild Yourself - Simon Barnes

Rewild Yourself by Simon Barnes

This marvellous book is subtitled: 23 spellbinding ways to make nature more visible, and it does exactly what it says it will do. Each chapter offers something very simple and specific which you can do that’ll allow nature to reveal itself in a new way. The book’s premise is that we have not just stopped being in nature but that we have also stopped seeing nature, and that simple adjustments can re-open a perspective. Barnes is a fabulous journalist and a talented nature writer. He has an easy style that makes his ideas flow, guided by his gentle quirky humour. Each chapter is introduced with a quote from a child fantasy novel, and this sets the ideas in the landscape of C S Lewis, confirming the notion that opening our eyes to nature is a magical experience. The 23 spells to make nature visible are easy and obvious and profoundly impactful. I’m going to list them below, not as a spoiler to the book but as a temptation for you to find out how the charming prose of Barnes explores these tiny life hacks.

1-      Spot buddleia

2-      Get waterproof trousers

3-      Go on a boat trip at sea

4-      Put a piece of corrugated metal down, and check it regularly

5-      Look for turds

6-      Go on a bat hunt with a detector

7-      Sit still

8-      Go snorkelling or get a bathyscope

9-      Take binoculars everywhere

10-   Look for the pathways of animals

11-   Look out to sea

12-   Search for moths at night

13-   Get up before dawn

14-   Learn some Latin names

15-   Look for tracks

16-   Use your peripheral vision.

17-   Listen to birds’ songs and learn the five commonest

18-   Read books about nature (besides guide books)

19-   Float on the river in a canoe

20-   Walk for the sake of walking

21-   Keep a pond

22-   Go to special places – Barnes lists 6 great places to see puffins, dolphins, eagles etc.

23-   Allow yourself to be rewilded

These simple steps are taken by most nature lovers though there’ll be items there we can all kick ourselves for forgetting. If there was a twenty fourth, I’d say: sniff and taste as much as you can; and feel the earth squidge between your fingers and toes. This beautifully simple book is the first manual for regaining our lost connection with the earth.

Rewilding Yourself – Simon Barnes – Simon and Schuster 2018