Simon Barnes Author and Journalist

Once again Wild June had me racing towards London with a book to promote. I was reading Ulysses as the train rattled south and west from Norfolk: the following day was June 16: Bloomsday: the day on which the fictional action of Ulysses takes place, and on which those who love the book will raise… [Read More]

First, apologies. Fallen behind with the blog. Book promotions, lots of running around, little time to look or listen, and even less time to write. So it goes. Yesterday I was in Cromer, for a Jarrolds literary lunch, and in the middle of it I had to take a long call to interview, well, a… [Read More]

Swifts have become the birds of relief. They excite a sigh of gratitude: phew, look, a party of swifts, must be at least a dozen of them flying over the common, well, that’s OK then, things might be very much worse, we haven’t buggered it all up quite yet. I had just such moment, sitting… [Read More]

June 5 Eddie and I were seated on the ground. It was soaking, but who cares? We had our waterproof trousers, which of course are, the next best thing to a super-power: nothing that life could throw at us could cause us grief. So we sat and we drank – beer for me, apple juice… [Read More]

Eddie and I were sitting out on the marsh an hour or so before dusk when we heard the cuckoo again. Good. He – only a male cuckoo says cuckoo – has been hard at it for six weeks now. Cuckoos love this spot, one that we in Norfolk, without a trace of irony, call… [Read More]

Here are the first 34 of Eddie’s blogs. Wild June 2019:2-1 Wild June 2019:2 Wild June:3 Wild June:4  

June 2 There are a few bits of essential equipment for wildlifers recommended in my book Rewild Yourself, including the all-essential supermarket carrier bag, and of course a copy of Basho’s haikus. But I forgot the hammock. The keen pursuer of wildlife can’t afford to be without on. I took to my hammock on the… [Read More]

The boat is called the Golden Mean, but there was little moderation that day: the first day of June, the first of 30 Days Wild that the family, as encouraged by the Wildlife Trusts, will try and follow: at least one wild moment every single day of a wild month. It is the start of… [Read More]

When you are showing people your local patch, you want the place to perform. Especially if you happen to be managing the aforementioned patch. And even more especially if the people are not really wildlifers. Something esoteric and subtle won’t really cut it. You want to show them something amazing… First there was a kestrel…. [Read More]

A brilliant technological breakthrough has got the website’s email up and running again; so it’s time to start blogging again. Welcome or welcome back: and sorry I’ve been away so long. May 15 2019 We get used to the pattern of things, and we do so for a reason. When there is a break in… [Read More]

David Attenborough has been accused of betraying wildlife. So let’s ask his major critic to remake the greatest of all television programmes…   Death on Earth A Natural History by George Monbiot Episode 1 GEORGE: I am now standing at the heart of the Ordovician extinction – and even here, it is ghastly. All around… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III Day 8 It’s at this stage of the trip that I get all elegiac. Or if you prefer, soppy. It’s the last full day. In my little hut at Crocodile Camp I felt as if I would be staying in the heart of the Valley forever; now we were back at… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III Day 7 There are some days when the Valley goes mad. Chucks everything at you all at once, no thought of saving something up for a nice surprise later on. All at once, crossing the wooded savannahs of the Luangwa Valley was like crossing Liverpool Street Station during the rush hour…. [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III Day 6 How I love my hut. On these trips I get to spend four nights in the same small hut out in the middle of the Luangwa Valley in Zambia and it’s never long before I feel a sense of ownership. True, it offers frail protection from the bush, and… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III What the hell day is it today? There are moments on the Sacred Combe Safaris when even the most harassed and pressured of us becomes time-rich. Sometimes these periods are close to being the best part of the trip: idle hours in a hut which has no luxury but its location:… [Read More]

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Sacred Combe Safari III Day 5 We have all heard a good deal about the loss of biodiversity: but as I keep saying, we are also and crucially losing bioabundance. And though a good sighting of some rare and lovely thing does our hearts good, a glorious sight of biological plenty has the same profound… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III Day 4 And now we walk. We won’t see a vehicle for the next five days.  Walking – walking towards camp — we stopped for tea. As we did so, three elephants, two females and a young male, walked towards us. So we shifted ground and started again. Tea tastes better… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III Day 3 There are moments very dear to the professional safari guide, occasions that showcase both knowledge and skill in the same dramatic moment: so that it seems that the guide himself had personally called the lovely beast into being. Moffat Mwanza was about to have just such a moment as… [Read More]