Is this the most exotic bird in the world? It took command of the highest point in a bare tree 15 feet from the ground, where it was skewered by a beam of sunlight. It looked as if it was striking a pose in a spotlight. It was a bright shining purple spangled with dancing… [Read More]
Archives for January 2016
Getting excited about waders
As I write this I’m expecting a photographer to turn up any minute. He’s taking a picture of me to be used as a by-line shot for a magazine: I’m starting a new column next month – of which more later. The snapper rang me yesterday to finalise things. “And do you have a wild… [Read More]
The hawk of truth is swift
A flicker of movement caught my eye as I sat at my desk. Perched on a fence-post – no, not a thrush, not quite right. I raised the bins to perform one of the routine miracles of the birding life and turned the not-quite thrush into a wholly perfect sparrowhawk. A male, compact, barred… [Read More]
Eddie’s Big Apple Blog
Eddie’s Big Apple Blog
Barnes is seeing double
My sister Rachel gave me a kind and funny present for my new writing-hut. It’s a silk-screen print of Withnail affectionately clasping a bottle of plundered Chateau Margaux ’53 (“best of the century”). The joke is that there are two images of Withnail, with two or three ghost-images discernible behind them. So here is Withnail… [Read More]
Short ears and golden eyes
We are learning a new set of responses to the wild world. When our ancestors — even our recent ones — saw a top predator, they saw human failure. They saw loss of control: a place where the humans had slackened their grip, or worse, where humans had never been able to impose themselves in… [Read More]
The Great Norfolk Champagne Mystery
There are mysteries surrounding the most humdrum of lives. Even mine. A parcel arrived this week, forwarded from my previous address. Not a quick process, so perhaps it was something to do with Christmas. I opened it without excitement, expecting a couple of ghosted autobiographies of footballers or perhaps a guide to the golf courses… [Read More]
A trunk call
There’s a big ash tree at the bottom of the garden, in full view from the bedroom window. When you stare out in winter before the day’s thought-processes have started to kick in, it’s possible to discern in the bare branches the bearded features of both DH Lawrence and Charles Darwin. It’s a funky old… [Read More]
The Sacred Combe
The Sacred Combe My new book, The Sacred Combe is published this week. Here’s the first chapter. 1. The Valley It was the moment when I noticed someone was eating my house that I knew I’d come home. It was my first night in the Valley: perfectly black, the air filled with swishing, ripping, munching…. [Read More]
Eddie’s Back!
Eddie Blog 2016:1