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ECOS 34-1-66 Book Reviews ECOS 34(1) 2013 ECOS 34(1) 2013 on wild work which covers themes like I wrote this review sitting in Stornoway working dogs, and, enticingly, “Creatures library, and as I worked a local Gaelic Book of the Mind”. As Pullar says in her activist came up. He wished to remain introduction, this is a study that aims to anonymous and said “Just call me Will-o- approach animals not just physically and the-Wisp”. He said what impressed him Reviews economically, but also “at the level of about this book was that it gives names feeling, imagination and belief.” in English, Latin, Scots and Gaelic, and that while the English and Latin usually For example, the two pages devoted to have just one name, the more vernacular the mountain hare describe its ecology, languages have many. For example, the provide an insight into the lore of hare (Blue) mountain hare, Lepus timidus, in shooting (no longer an enterprise to be Scots can be whiddie baudrons, bawtie, encouraged), and a concise summary cutty, donie, fuddie, lang lugs, maukin or of the hare’s meaning in Scots folklore. pussy, and in Gaelic, maigheach bhàn or In 1662 when Isobel Gowdie confessed bocaire fasaich. If one goes to the Gaelic to changing into a hare as part of her dictionaries, further names can be found alleged witchcraft, the spell by which including regional variations for the hare she claimed to restore herself to human at different stages of development. form was: This is a book that honours not just the Hare, hare, God send thee care! animals, with a splendour of photography I am in a hare’s likeness just now, that would grace any coffee table, but facing woodland management today. FAUNA SCOTICA But I shall be a woman even now – also their human connections. I long for So far, so good; but there the writing Animals and people in Scotland Hare, hare, God send thee care. more wildlife writing and praise Polly departs from any other woodland book Polly Pullar & Mary Low Pullar, Mary Low, and Birlinn Limited on you have (probably) ever read. Coupled Birlinn Limited, 2012, 290 pages Similarly thought-provoking is the their achievement. with visits to 12 very different woodlands Hbk £30, ISBN 978 1 84158 561 1 section on the sacred goose. Does the across the UK, Sara Maitland has skilfully notion that the wild goose is a Celtic Alastair McIntosh re-told many of the Grimm’s fairy tales, This book is more than just a study of symbol of the Holy Spirit authentically one at the end of every chapter, linked natural nature. It also looks at the human come from tradition, or has it been with the issues discussed. She has taken relationship to nature. It sets nature wild invented by the likes of Lord George GOSSIP FROM THE FOREST the care to see them from different and free alongside human nature and Macleod of the Iona Community? The tangled roots of our forests perspectives, and to include the detail thereby explores the fauna of Scotland Well, I once put that question to Ron and fairytales and magic of the natural world – the through the lens of human ecology; Fergusson, Macleod’s biographer, who Sara Maitland British natural world – in each one. indeed, a very humanised ecology, had in turn once posed it to old George. Granta, 2012, 256 pages because Mary Low’s acclaimed Celtic “Where did you get it from?” Ron had Hbk, £20, ISBN 1847084293 Maitland’s re-telling of the stories is brave. scholarship, her skill in folklore, richly asked. “I’ve no idea!” said George. “I Many storytellers are content to leave it complements the flowing narrative and probably invented it!” Fauna Scotica This is an important book. It re-connects to the listener to fill in the detail around vivid images of Polly Pullar and other hints, however, that George’s intuition the very practical matter of the UK’s archetype and human activity in stories. photographic contributors. may have been sourced from deeper forests with our own emotional heritage But here, Rumpelstiltskin looks like hazel wellheads of the traditions in which he of story and fairy tales. And it’s a book coppice and like juniper trees - all spiky; The work is divided into 10 sections was culturally immersed; and recently, in with real heart, a book to savour. a grown up Hansel goes back into the organised according to habitats. It reading the Chinese poetry of Wu Wei, forest to reconnect with his wild side and includes the expected with chapters on I was struck by the translator’s comment Themes of forestry and amenity, nature his twin sister, Gretel; and the big bad lone mountain, bog and moor, lochs and in the Penguin Classics edition (p. 92) and raw material, local industry and wolf, isolated in a conifer plantation and rivers, the sea, islands and skerries, farm that “there was a myth that wild geese personal sense of place are all explored, thoroughly disgusted by Little Red Riding and croft, about town; but also chapters – and fish – could carry messages.” in an effective synthesis of the challenges Hood, has a very modern guise. 64 65 ECOS 34(1) 2013 ECOS 34(1) 2013 What does all this have to do with the was shot dead by a local hunter, aged the Carpathians. The bear is a powerful way we see forests or, for that matter, 20. He claimed self-defence, but in his symbol in many cultures, including in nature conservation? Maitland would trial it was revealed that he had boasted Britain, playing a big role in myth and argue a great deal, and I agree with he was going to find and kill the bears. legend. It is an animal loaded with her. The booming bass drum beat of The court found that he had deliberately meaning far beyond its ecological role. the whole book is an emotional one: set out to kill the bear, and he was given In Bear Witness, this is not analysed, but a yearning for honesty within our a prison sentence for the crime. Happily breathes through the story. Alongside philosophy of land management, and for the cubs, they were adopted by this, the ecological importance of a recognition of the ancient archetypes the other female. The reintroduction the bear is well presented, with that underpin many of our core beliefs. programme has continued at a steady consideration of how habitats are There are deeper messages within the pace since then, much slower than impoverished in a wide range of aspects old fairy stories, and their resonance originally planned by government when this element is missing. runs deep, if you will let them in. conservationists, but in the face of massive opposition from local farmers, The writing is inspired, ranging If you would like your memories of despite compensation arrangements from imagery and description to the childhood stories cast in the context for loss of livestock. The programme is immediacy of dialogue and emotion, it of the land itself, your understanding highly controversial. is honest, even brutal, which enhances of our forests challenged, and your the interest. The story is captivating thoughts provoked, read this book. In some parts of the world, including and the characters are convincing. some parts of Europe, people are The controversies, the hopes, the Lisa Schneidau strolled across the road to check a proud of their bears. But where they disappointments that are all too clear waste container, and as I approached are re-introduced, there tends to be from actual bear programmes, are a dark shape moved in the skip and a controversy, with communities divided. vividly and intimately portrayed through BEAR WITNESS bear’s head rose up and watched me. Generally farmers oppose the presence the life of the main character. A captivating journey to the wild side The animal seemed huge. I quickly of bears, and the hunters, the men with Mandy Haggith retreated across the road. As we looked guns, are predominantly farmers. One The story is set slightly in the future. Saraband, 2013, 264 pages on, several more bears came out of factor in the success of bears seems to Although not specified, it could be Pbk, £8.99, ISBN 1908643292 the woodland and climbed into the be whether the local human population 5 years from now, or is that wishful containers to rummage for food. I was is used to living alongside them. It is a thinking? The world depicted, including Some years ago I spent a few days in surprised at just how big they are. A few cultural question. Farming practices need the social context, is entirely recognisable the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, weeks after this encounter, I heard on to be adapted to allow for the presence with some plausible refinements. Mandy hoping to sight a bear or perhaps hear the news that a tourist had been killed of bears, and farmers resist change. Haggith’s previous book The Last Bear the howling of wolves. I was impressed by a bear at this same location in Brasov. And it’s not just about farmers: people told the story of the killing of the last by the prolific wild flowers and some living in bear country develop a culture bear in Scotland a thousand years ago. interesting bird life, but didn’t have any France has hosted a bear reintroduction with the right degree of respect for this It showed a divided society, between large carnivore experiences. Spending programme in the Pyrenees since 1996.
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