Mid-way through the Marlborough LitFest Goes Wild events on Saturday (June 3), readers gathered in the White Horse Bookshop Gallery to learn the winner of the Richard Jefferies Society/White Horse Bookshop Writer’s Prize for 2017.
John Price, Chairman of the Richard Jefferies Society, announced – ‘with great pleasure’ – that the book which best reflected the spirit of Jefferies’ writing was The Wood for the Trees by Professor Richard Fortey (published by William Collins): “With a strong sense of place in Fortey’s recording of the passage of the year in the woodland, we felt that the book was a worthy successor to Jefferies’ writing.”
Professor is a palaeontologist, natural historian, writer and broadcaster. After his retirement, he bought four acres of ancient beech and bluebell woodland in the Chilterns, near Henley, which he now manages. The book chronicles, month by month, his developing relationship with the wood, investigating the range of species living in his territory, then expanding to consider the socio-economic history of the area, and issues involved in the maintenance of the woodland as a thriving ecosystem.
The author’s academic background means he approaches his recording of species with scientific accuracy. His holistic approach to describing the woodland echoes Jefferies’ approach in his writing about the area around Coate, near Swindon.
Accepting the £1,000 prize, Professor Fortey commented that he was especially pleased to receive an award with such strong connections to the Wiltshire countryside – an area he knows well.
Angus MacLennan, manager of The White Horse Bookshop, added: “In this golden era for nature writing we are delighted to award Richard Fortey for his intimate portrait of our environment and our place within it. It strikes the perfect balance between science and sensibility.”
Announcing the prize winner, John Price explained the origins of the prize and its connection with the bookshop. He noted that Jefferies’ (1848 – 1887) last published work was an introduction to Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne. He wrote: ‘I did not come across Mr. White’s book till late in the day, when it was in fact, too late, else it would have been of the utmost advantage to me.’
“We feel”, John Price said, “that this could also apply to Richard Fortey’s book, so all budding naturalists, and would-be nature writers should be alerted. White, Jefferies, and Fortey, all demonstrate the enormous interest that can be obtained from the study of a relatively small area of land over an extended period.”
The prize was created using a legacy to the Society from John Webb, one of its most active members, who died in 2014. The prize is now a memorial to him. The Richard Jefferies Society Writers’ Prize was first awarded in 2015 – winner then was John Lister-Kaye for Gods of the Morning (Canongate).
Professor Fortey’s book can be bought from or ordered through the White Horse Bookshop
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