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White, flight, fright

27 February 2016 by Simon Barnes 6 Comments

White is the colour that shouts. White is Real Madrid, looking down on the rest of the football world in their royal purity. White is cricket: serenity at a distance and a hand-to-hand struggle when you’re in the middle of it all.

White is a bold statement in brides, in business-shirts, in sheets and in terror. It’s the colour above all that catches the eye: the one colour they tell you not to wear when you go walking in the bush in Africa.

Watch an animal flee from you: an antelope in the Luangwa Valley or a bunny in England. As they turn away they flash white: a fluffy tail, or a caudal patch, the white that shines out from beneath the lifted tail. The flash of white — white in motion – shouts fear, danger, flee, don’t think, don’t stop, act.

White glares and blares and hollers. But nature loves a good paradox, and so for some, white is the colour of concealment.

My eye was caught by the unmissable flashing of white, and I turned my head to see a little egret land in the dike 20 feet away. To me looking down he stood out like a light-house. He stabbed his stiletto-bill into the dark water and threw his head back: a slim silver fish caught crossways, flicked, turned and swallowed. Headfirst and whole.

From his position in the water, looking up, the fish couldn’t see him at all. He was a brightness against the brightness of the sky: a white threat from a white world the fish had no wish ever to enter. But enter he did: and it was the last event of his life.

In China white is the colour for funerals.

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Posted in Wildblog

Comments

  1. eric wright says

    27 February 2016 at 4:14 pm

    Poetic!

    Reply
  2. Delphine Spilsbury says

    27 February 2016 at 5:17 pm

    The book is fabulous thank you. And it is so good to have a reason to open the Sunday Times magazine!

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      20 May 2016 at 4:45 pm

      Thanks for a lovely message.

      Reply
  3. Chris says

    27 February 2016 at 10:03 pm

    Loved that, thank you.

    Reply
  4. Sam Leadsom says

    29 February 2016 at 2:52 am

    Reading your articles, you bring strong memories of the colours, landscape and wildlife of the UK to me here in Singapore. Thank you

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      20 May 2016 at 4:46 pm

      I’m delighted to hear that. I hope there are still nice green places in Singapore.

      Reply

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