21st-Century Yokel

ever. I don’t write for newspapers any more and all my non-book writing goes on my website, some of which turns into book writing, and for which the unsolicited, unpaid proofreading skills of Dave Holwill, Lesley Bourke, Becca Broad, Amanda Corp and Miranda Whiting have been invaluable. Thank you for your eagle eyes. I sometimes think writing is just the sum of your disappointments and hopes in life plus all the books you have read but that’s not quite true. This selection you’re holding is also indelibly flavoured by the nature lovers I have spent time around in the last couple of years whose positive worldview and excitement about wildlife has been so infectious: bee goddesses Hayley Anderson and Emily Reed, butterfly overlord John Walters, beaver tracker Stephen Hussey, moorland rootsman Michael Nendick, arboreal mastermind David Prout, eco sextons Ru and Claire Callender, caterpillar guru Jenny Porrett. I must also in this category count my parents Jo and Mick, who were helping to get me excited about buzzards, moss, newts and bees long before I even realised it. But I have much more to thank them for – particularly my mum, whose linoprints feature in this book and have been an inspiration to me during its creation. A few of these stories came together a little more cohesively during spoken word shows in 2015 and 2016. Thanks to everyone who booked me for one of those – especially Chris Woodley-Stewart and Samantha Holland and to Chris Booth and Lucinda Guy for letting me ramble about my rambling on Soundart Radio once a month. Cheers also to the Dominick Tyler for teaching me the terms Cornubian Batholith and Witches’ Knickers. Check out his book Uncommon Ground: it’s really great. And finally a big salute to brilliant comedy actress and fellow Pentangle nut Alice Lowe for giving me the title to this book. She says she can’t remember ever doing so, but she definitely did, and I have documented proof. After reading one of my old columns for the Guardian in spring 2012, not long after I was first attempting to write about life in the countryside in a digressive way that brought in folklore, music and family, as well as landscape and wildlife, Alice asked ‘Have you ever thought of calling yourself the 21st-Century Yokel?’ So I did.

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