The cat stuck up a tree is an archetype of suburban life – usually accompanied, at least in cartoons and our imagination, by the entire local fire brigade. Idiot cat! Why don’t you come down the way you got up? The cat is entitled to answer: “Because I’m not a margay!” “What’s that got to… [Read More]
Modesty Blaise and the hummingbird that hides in plain sight
Years ago I interviewed the great thriller writer Peter O’Donnell, creator of the immortal Modesty Blaise. I asked him about Nanny Prendergast — one of his better villains – she’s in The Xanadu Talisman, read it for yourself – and asked: “Where the hell did that idea come from?” Laughing, shaking his head in helpless… [Read More]
Some thoughts about dragons and why we need them
Here be dragons. Did anyone ever actually write that on a map in all seriousness? If they didn’t, it’s an idea we needed to invent, because the phrase goes so deep with us. We love the idea of a place so remote and so dangerous that real dragons, breathing fire and sleeping on hoards of… [Read More]
BARNES’S BESTIARY: GEOFFROY’S CAT
I’ve just started this blog for that fine organisation the World Land Trust. I’m now in my second term as a council member, and have visited many of their projects – and seen some fantastic beasts while I’ve been doing it. Not this one alas, but here is beast number 1 – Geoffroy’s Cat. There’s… [Read More]
Love is all you need, though a nice drink helps. On the martsh with Eddie…
#ShowTheLove with @TheCCoalition www.rspb.org.uk/showthelove My mother had a ritual saying when given glass of whisky on a cold evening: “I can feel it doing me good.” That’s true of nature as well. Nature does us good. Access to nature allows us to live longer and happier lives. There’s any amount of research and many thousands… [Read More]
Two leopards with only seven feet between them: paws for thought in the bush
Close observers of this space will have noticed that I haven’t finished my trip yet. I suppose it’s because I can’t bear to leave. In strict fact I’ve been home for a couple of months, but it seems I’ve been avoiding the task of writing my final blog from the Luangwa Valley. But I must… [Read More]
The highly movious nature of Zambian widldife
Pterodactyl! You call out the names of birds as you see them and identify them; it’s a kind of politeness. Sometimes they look, sometimes they don’t. This time I certainly had the attention of my audience. They turned their eyes skywards to catch sight of the two monsters that flew overhead and no one contradicted… [Read More]
Surprised by joy: that, and the fact that elephants are really quite big
I’m not blasé, of course I’m not blasé, but at the same time, it’s not my dewy-eyed first time. I’ve been in the Luangwa Valley many times in the last quarter-century and my love of the place is about familiarity, not arrival-shock. I don’t go weak at the knees every time I see an elephant…. [Read More]
How to have fun in bed in the Luangwa Valley
Like marriage, the Luangwa Valley isn’t all about bed, but that doesn’t mean bed doesn’t matter. First night out in Chokoko, a bush-camp set in a bend of the sand river of the same name. A whisky at the camp fire and early to bed, but not alone. I took with me the African night…. [Read More]
Why walking towards lions is sometimes quite a good idea
So we stepped out of the canoe and walked towards the lions. As opposed to away from the lions. And that moment when you reverse common sense always gets to me. At once you are torn in half. Half of you says: well, that can’t be right, can it? But the other half says yeah,… [Read More]