Author:Roger Deakin,Clare Balding,Robert Macfarlane,Alice Roberts,Richard Mabey
An anthology of programmes hosted by and about Roger Deakin, the legendary naturalist, introduced by
his friend Robert Macfarlane.
Author, filmmaker and conservationist Roger Deakin first came to fame with his bestselling book Waterlog, which brought wild swimming into the mainstream and pioneered the 'new nature writing' genre. Published posthumously, his second travelogue, Wildwood, and collected journals, Notes from Walnut Tree Farm, were also hailed as classics. The collection is introduced by Robert Macfarlane, a dear friend of Roger Deakin's as well as his literary executor.
Deakin's life at Walnut Tree Farm is the subject of the two radio soundscapes that open this collection. In The House, he introduces us to his home of almost 40 years, presenting an atmospheric sound portrait of this ancient, timber-framed Suffolk farmhouse - from the sighing of the wind to the scuttling spiders and the chirpings of the swallows up the chimney. The Garden takes us on a tour of the untamed land surrounding it - with its moat, shepherd's hut and the walnut tree that gave the farm its name - offering us an intimate record of the changing seasons.
Cigarette on the Waveney sees Deakin paddling his canoe, Cigarette, from the source of the River Waveney at Redgrave Fen in Suffolk to Geldeston Locks in Norfolk. Recorded over several days and nights, this evocative audio diary charts his journey as he captures the sounds of the waterway and its wildlife.
Next, in a 5-part abridged reading of Wildwood by Sean Baker, we journey with Deakin from Suffolk in the spring to the Australian outback, in search of what lies behind humanity's profound connection with wood and trees.
A radio tribute toWaterlog follows, as anthropologist and wild swimmer Alice Roberts joins friends and fans of Deakin, including Robert Macfarlane, Sue Clifford and Richard Mabey, to celebrate the book's enduring legacy.
And in a pair of travel documentaries, we take two delightful day trips with Roger Deakin. In Ramblings, he takes a walk with presenter Clare Balding around his home patch of Diss in Suffolk, and in On the Beach, he spends a summer day on the Essex coast near Clacton, revisiting one of the places he described so vividly in Waterlog: Jaywick Sands.
© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
The House
Presented by Roger Deakin
Produced by Sarah Blunt
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 2 February 2004
The Garden
Presented by Roger Deakin
Produced by Sarah Blunt
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 5 December 2005
Cigarette on the Waveney
Presented by Roger Deakin
Produced by Sarah Blunt
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 26 July 2005
Wildwood
Read by Sean Baker
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Amber Barnfather
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 18-22 June 2007
Waterlog
Presented by Alice Roberts
Produced by Sarah Blunt
With: Sue Clifford, Richard Mabey, Robert Macfarlane, Joe Minihane and Kate Rew
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 12 May 2019
Ramblings
Presented by Clare Balding
Produced by Mark Smalley
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 20 May 2005
On the Beach
Presented by Roger Deakin
Produced by Jane Greenwood
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 17 November 2003
Blazing...Visceral...As McConaghy shows in this stunning book, the limits of language lead us to the limits of empathy
—— Lorraine Berry , Los Angeles TimesSo damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact
—— Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation (via Twitter)Bold...A heartfelt and earnest novel
—— The New York Times Book ReviewOne of those very rare, special novels that changes you as you read ... It's beautifully written and smart and impressively, importantly atmospheric. And it's also funny and warm and perfectly crafted with some of the best characters I have ever read ... I loved loved loved this book
—— Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always IsThis heart-pounding novel digs into the complex relationships between humans and the creatures with which we share the natural world
—— NewsweekSuspenseful and poignant...humans and animals alike can break our hearts
—— Scientific AmericanFar more than an old wolves' tale. Instead, it illustrates what it's like to be an outsider from both a human and animal perspective and the level of healing and acceptance it takes from within to be accepted and to accept yourself
—— Electric LiteratureUrges us to take a lesson from the wolves, and learn to lean on one another
—— BookRiotLyrical, captivating, thought-provoking and thrilling, this immersive read will capture your attention from the first page
—— Good Morning AmericaThe Australian author made waves with last summer's Migrations, a meditation on climate change and loneliness, and returns with a new story set in the Scottish Highlands, where two twin sisters join a team attempting to reintroduce a pack of wolves to their natural surroundings
—— Entertainment WeeklyUnflinching in its view of the harm humans inflict on the environment and on each other and insisting on the interconnectedness of the two Once There Were Wolves delivers a powerful call for hope in the face of catastrophe
—— Shelf AwarenessVividly realized... Gorgeously rendered...A story full of subtle surprises...This is a stunner
—— Publishers WeeklyPoetic...A lovely, gripping tale about a world that could be our own
—— KirkusOnce There Were Wolves is one of those very rare, special novels that changes you as you read, which you do as slowly as you can because you want to savor it, except the pages keep turning furiously because the story is so thrilling and so powerful. It's beautifully written and smart and impressively, importantly atmospheric. And it's also funny and warm and perfectly crafted with some of the best characters I have ever read. I will be enthusiastically recommending this novel to everyone forever. Charlotte McConaghy has cemented herself as a sure-thing, must-read writer for me. I loved loved loved this book
—— Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is[A] propulsive novel.
—— GuardianVivid... An intricate analysis of our planet's interconnected past, it is impossible to come away from Otherlands without awe for what may lie ahead
—— Amancai Biraben , IndependentHalliday takes us on a journey into deep time in this epic book, showing us Earth as it used to be and the worlds that were here before ours
—— ‘The Hottest Books of the Year Ahead’ , IndependentThis is a piece of nature writing that covers millions of years, from the very start of evolution, while capturing the almost unthinkable ways geography has shifted and changed over time. Epic in scope and executed with charming enthusiasm, Otherlands looks set to be a big talking point for fans of non-fiction in 2022
—— ‘The 15 New Novels And Non-Fiction Books To Read In 2022’ , Mr PorterPalaeobiologist Thomas Halliday embraces a yet more epic timescale in Otherlands: A World in the Making, touring the many living worlds that preceded ours, from the mammoth steppe in glaciated Alaska to the lush rainforests of Eocene Antarctica. If you have ever wondered what sound a pterosaur's wings made in flight, this is the book for you
—— 'The best science books coming your way in 2022’ , New ScientistFull of wonder and fascination, exquisitely written, this is time travel of spectacular dimensions - a journey into our planet's evolution and the world in which we live. A compellingly important read
—— Isabella Tree, author of WILDINGThe best book on the history of life on Earth I have ever read
—— Tom Holland, author of DOMINIONThomas Halliday's debut is a kaleidoscopic and evocative journey into deep time. He takes quiet fossil records and complex scientific research and brings them alive - riotous, full-coloured and three-dimensional. You'll find yourself next to giant two-metre penguins in a forested Antarctica 41 million years ago or hearing singing icebergs in South Africa some 444 million years ago. Maybe most importantly, Otherlands is a timely reminder of our planet's impermanence and what we can learn from the past
Deep time is very hard to capture - even to imagine - and yet Thomas Halliday has done so in this fascinating volume. He wears his grasp of vast scientific learning lightly; this is as close to time travel as you are likely to get
—— Bill McKibben, author of FALTERAn absolutely gripping adventure story, exploring back through the changing vistas of our own planet's past. Earth has been many different worlds over its planetary history, and Thomas Halliday is the perfect tour guide to these past landscapes, and the extraordinary creatures that inhabited them. Otherlands is science writing at its very finest
—— Lewis Dartnell, author of ORIGINSOtherlands is one of those rare books that's both deeply informative and daringly imaginative. It will change the way you look at the history of life, and perhaps also its future
—— Elizabeth Kolbert, author of THE SIXTH EXTINCTIONThis stunning biography of our venerable Earth, detailing her many ages and moods, is an essential travel guide to the changing landscapes of our living world. As we hurtle into the Anthropocene, blindly at the helm of this inconstant planet, Halliday gives us our bearings within the panorama of deep time. Aeons buckle under his pen: the world before us made vivid; the paradox of our permanence and impermanence visceral. Wonderful
—— Gaia Vince, author of TRANSCENDENCEStirring, surprising and beautifully written, Otherlands offers glimpses of times so different to our own they feel like parallel worlds. In its lyricism and the intimate attention it pays to nonhuman life, Thomas Halliday's book recalls Rachel Carson's Under the Sea Wind, and marks the arrival of an exciting new voice
—— Cal Flynn, author of ISLANDS OF ABANDONMENTImaginative
—— Andrew Robinson , NatureThis study of our prehistoric earth is "beyond cinematic", James McConnachie says. "It could well be the best book I read in 2022
—— Robbie Millen and Andrew Holgate, Books of the Year , Sunday TimesIt's phenomenally difficult for human brains to grasp deep time. Even thousands of years seem unfathomable, with all human existence before the invention of writing deemed 'prehistory', a time we know very little about. Thomas Halliday's book Otherlands helps to ease our self-centred minds into these depths. Moving backwards in time, starting with the thawing plains of the Pleistocene (2.58 million - 12,000 years ago) and ending up in the marine world of the Ediacaran (635-541 mya), he devotes one chapter to each of the intervening epochs or periods and, like a thrilling nature documentary, presents a snapshot of life at that time. It's an immersive experience, told in the present tense, of these bizarre 'otherlands', populated by creatures and greenery unlike any on Earth today
—— Books of the Year , GeographicalEach chapter of this literary time machine takes us further back in prehistory, telling vivid stories about ancient creatures and their alien ecologies, ending 550 million years ago
—— The Telegraph Cultural Desk, Books of the Year , TelegraphThe largest-known asteroid impact on Earth is the one that killed the dinosaurs 65?million years ago, but that is a mere pit stop on Thomas Halliday's evocative journey into planetary history in Otherlands. Each chapter of this literary time machine takes us further back into the deep past, telling vivid stories about ancient creatures and their alien ecologies, until at last we arrive 550?million years ago in the desert of what is now Australia, where no plant life yet covers the land. Halliday notes the urgency of reducing carbon emissions in the present to protect our settled patterns of life, but adds: "The idea of a pristine Earth, unaffected by human biology and culture, is impossible." It's an epic lesson in the impermanence of all things
—— Steven Poole, Books of the Year , TelegraphThe world on which we live is "undoubtedly a human planet", Thomas Halliday writes in this extraordinary debut. But "it has not always been, and perhaps will not always be". Humanity has dominated the Earth for a tiny fraction of its history. And that History is vast. We tend to lump all dinosaurs, for example, into one period in the distant past. But more time passed between the last diplodocus and the first tyrannosaurus than has passed between the last tyrannosaurus and the present day. A mind-boggling fact. This is a glorious, mesmerising guide to the past 500 million years bought to life by this young palaeobiologist's rich and cinematic writing
—— Ben Spencer, Books of the Year , Sunday TimesA book that I really want to read but haven't yet bought - so I hope it goes into my Christmas stocking - is Otherlands: A World in the Making by Thomas Halliday. It sounds so amazing - a history of the world before history, before people. He's trying to write the history of the organisms and the plants and the creatures and everything else as the world grows from protozoic slime or whatever we emerged from. It sounds like an absolutely incredible effort of imagination. I think that Christmas presents should be books you can curl up with and get engrossed in and transported by - and Otherlands sounds like exactly that
—— Michael Wood, Books of the Year , BBC History MagazineBut, of course, not all history is human history, Otherlands, by Thomas Halliday, casts its readers further and further back, past the mammoths, past the dinosaurs, back to an alien world of shifting rock and weird plants. It is a marvel
—— Books of the Year , Prospect