The Running Hare

by John Lewis-Stempel

Spine creased. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Natural History, Environment, Science, Animals, British Literature

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2016

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Industrial farming has succeeded in turning turn fields into open roofed factories. Copious amounts of fertiliser and weed killers have decimated the natural environment. Plants, birds and animals that were once common sights in the countryside are now very rare or no longer exist. The fields are now only able to support the growing crop.

These fields are silent; empty of life.

It used to be very different. A field of wheat supported a whole eco-system, from the worms in the ground, all the way up to the raptors that drift across the crop. Wild flowers added colour to the fields, corn buntings and lapwings flitted across the top of the crop and hares fought on the fields. Lewis Stempel remembers this way of farming and wonders if he can bring some life back to the countryside again. First he needs to secure a field. Most people he approaches are horrified that he would go back to the old methods claiming that the weeds will bring disease and pests, but he finds one called Flinders and so begins his experiment.

Assessing the land, he realises that it is in pretty poor condition, but not as desolate of life as the field next door. This is farmed by twins who he calls ‘the chemical brothers’, but he pushes ahead with his indulgent experiment nonetheless. First edition to the field is a bird table, and he spends ages observing all the species that realise that there is a new source of food available. He unearths his old Fordson to begin the ploughing. It is not a powerful tractor, unlike the £250,000 modern machines, but it weighs considerably less and does not compress the ground. It reveals the richness of the earth in this Herefordshire field. Sowing is entertaining, as he opts to hand sow, before acquiring a hand operated machine to make life much easier. It still takes a while with 1 tonne of grain though. Then he adds his wild flower mixes, opting to bring colour to the green with cornflowers and poppies.

But will these fundamental changes in the way he cares for the land, bring the hares back?

Lewis Stempel has written a very poignant book. He raises hugely important questions about the sustainability and to be perfectly frank the point of the huge industrial farms and techniques. Why if these chemicals are so safe do the manufactures insist on a sealed cab for tractors spraying this on the land and why do we need to eliminate anything that flies. Not all of them are pests; we might just need the bees you know… More than that, this is a very fine book; the writing is top notch and he is incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about his subject. Woven into his superb prose are quotes and poetry about the farming year, all carefully chosen and relevant. However, what comes across most in this book though is his passion for this single field, farmed in the traditional way; a way that seems just right given modern farming methods. The possibility and potential for wildlife is huge if lot more farmers were prepared to give it a go.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOTW

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078xf14

Description: A close up and intimate natural history by John Lewis-Stempel. By taking an abandoned field close to his farm, he observes in minute detail the behaviour of plants, birds and animals that are being displaced by agribusiness. In telling the story of one field, he tells the story of our countryside, our language, our religion and our food. But in transforming one field, he creates a haven for one particular animal close to his heart - the brown hare.

In the opening episode, a suitable field is chosen for a year-long experiment. And trouble begins.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Nearly 3.5) This is the record of a year of old-fashioned farming: Lewis-Stempel rented a several-acre field called Flinders, planted wildflowers in with his wheat and corn, and plowed it himself. Not a pesticide in sight. He attracted hares and other mammals, as well as numerous species of birds – all in all, much more life than your average field farmed by modern methods.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like this nearly as much as Meadowland. The first half is great, but then I got the feeling that he was finishing in a hurry and/or needing to pad out the book, because he starts adding stuff that feels superfluous: a table charting farmland bird decline in the UK (important information, to be sure, but does it belong in this book?), various lists (flowers mentioned in Shakespeare; rare and endangered plants) and LONG quotes from countryside authors like Richard Jeffries and John Clare. There’s also a jokey tone to this book that didn’t feel apposite, and more personal references (Twitter, literary festivals) than felt necessary.

However, I did like reading about his everyday experience as a farmer and about how things were different in his 1970s childhood. There aren’t as many notably poetic passages in this book as in the previous one, but he still has a knack for one-liners (“Swifts skirl and banshee”). As environmentalist books about an experiment with land-owning go, Dave Goulson’s A Buzz in the Meadow is better overall, but this one does a good job of bringing attention to the particular problems faced by the British countryside. “One field, just one field, made a difference,” he concludes. “If we had a thousand fields…”

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

One field, naturally sown and tended, attracted wildlife to it that were completely absent from the surrounding agri-cultured, chemically-induced fields. Hares, red-legged partridges, rabbits, pheasant, many different birds and insects were all drawn to Flinders, a field that the author tended with love and farmed with old methods rather than spraying with chemicals. Amongst the wheat, he sowed an abundance of wildflowers, horrifying neighbouring farmers who termed them ‘weeds’. Agriculture has decimated British nature so I admire anyone who makes an effort to reverse the process, even in a small way.

John Lewis-Stempel is a farmer who has inherited his love of farming from generations of his ancestors, most of whom have farmed on or near the Welsh border. He grew up close to nature and has an understanding and love of the natural world that it is a joy to read about. He writes beautifully. The core of the book is essentially a year in the life of one field and an adjoining paddock. It is a little bit disjointed in places but overall it’s a fascinating read, full of John Clare’s poetry and excerpts from nature writers from earlier times.

This book is a wake-up call to those who may not already be aware that some species of British birds have seen a 90% decline since the 1970s due to the removal of their natural habitat and not enough is being done to redress the balance. Our generation has lost the opportunity of hearing and seeing many birds that were common half a century ago and the same is true of wildflowers. Our lives are poorer for that. 4 stars for an interesting read, well written, and full of beautiful phrases such as the day was darkling.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Lewis-Stempel is that rare breed - a farmer who is also an environmentalist.

In The Running Hare he 'borrows' a field to experiment growing corn along with wildflowers - the idea is to see how this old fashioned idea of doing things impacts on the wildlife of the area. Modern farming is all about yield, but Lewis-Stempel spells out loud and clear (often with statistics) the terrible effect this is having on our animals, birds and flowers. The farmers next door to his field are known as The Chemical Brothers for a reason!

Lewis-Stempel needs to supplement his farming life (he has a young family) and contemplated a B&B or yurts. Thank goodness for us that he decided to turn to writing. He writes like a dream with a wonderful eye for detail. His love of a simple field of corn is just boundless and I enjoyed every page. One of the best books I've read so far this year.

[_och_man_ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Klucz moich wyborów książkowych jest często tak abstrakcyjny, że ciężko wytłumaczyć go przypadkowej osobie. O najmniejszą nawet dozę wyrozumiałości tym trudniej. W przypadku "Szaraka" - co tu dużo mówić - uwiodły mnie oczka okładkowego Lepus europaeus. Dalsza część mojego przykrótkiego wywodu niech będzie zatem ostrzeżeniem, by nigdy nie pokładać większych nadziei w samych tylko ślepiach.
Temat zdawał się czymś zdecydowanie wartym zgłębienia. Kultura rolnicza obecna jest w moim życiu (bez)pośrednio już od pierwszych wiosen, jakie było mi dane przeżyć. Większość fachowych terminów jakie przewijały się na kartach książki pochłaniałam z drganiem w kącikach ust, które zapowiadało rychłą falę nostalgii (tyczy się to chyba zwłaszcza nazw własnych poszczególnych maszyn).
Szczytem naiwności byłoby oczekiwać, że 330 stron ilustrujących rok z życia rolnika i jego pola kipieć będzie sielskością i anielskością. Nie spodziewałam się jednak, że w trakcie lektury (rozłożonej na zdecydowanie zbyt wiele dni) odhaczyć będę mogła 5 pełnoprawnych drzemek i kilkadziesiąt pomniejszych snów z gatunku 'mikro'. Jestem osobą, która praktykowanie tego typu rozrywek pozostawia na czas nocy, zatem niezwykle trudno jest doprowadzić mnie do takiego stanu. Do tej pory udało się to jednej jedynej książce, którą wspominam bardzo ozięble i nie chcę wspominać jej z tytułu. Mniejsza.
Wynudziłam się - jak do tego doszło, nie wiem. Nie rzucam w tym momencie oklepanym cytatem, JA FAKTYCZNIE NIE MAM POJĘCIA, CO TUTAJ NIE ZAGRAŁO. Ta książka to dość ciekawa sinusoida - liczne nawiązania popkulturowe i anegdoty lingwistyczne konsumowało mi się z ogromną przyjemnością. To właśnie ich obecność skutecznie powstrzymuje mnie przed wystawieniem "Szarakowi" najniższej noty. Z drugiej strony zaś, bezrefleksyjne fragmenty poświęcone polowaniom czy aktom kłusowniczym ("satysfakcja z zabijania"; co????) budzą jedynie niesmak, zdecydowanie niepotrzebny przy tego typu pozycji. Nie, gdy trzon całej historii zasadza się na jakże imponującej i podziwu godnej idei  powrotu do (nomen omen) korzeni, w której dobro środowiska stanowi wartość nadrzędną.

Wierzę (a wszelkie pozytywne opinie jedynie mnie w tym przekonaniu utwierdzają), że pióro Stempela znajdzie swoich zwolenników, którzy zasianą w lekturze pasję - nie sposób jej nie dostrzec - żąć będą z radością. Chętnie odstąpię swoje miejsce komuś godniejszemu.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
A close up and intimate natural history by John Lewis-Stempel. By taking an abandoned field close to his farm, he observes in minute detail the behaviour of plants, birds and animals that are being displaced by agribusiness. In telling the story of one field, he tells the story of our countryside, our language, our religion and our food. But in transforming one field, he creates a haven for one particular animal close to his heart - the brown hare.

In the opening episode, a suitable field is chosen for a year-long experiment. And trouble begins.

Writer: John Lewis-Stempel
Abridger Barry Johnston
Reader: Bernard Hill

Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078xf14

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, funny, beautiful, heart breaking.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE RUNNING HARE doesn’t have quite the charm and...well, cohesion, that Stemple’s previous book MEADOWLAND had. But Stemple brings all the same powers of observation and erudite rural knowledge, the same passion and nostalgia to a wheat field that he brought to his mountain farm meadow. He transmits these powerfully to the reader, the sense that things are changing quickly, and that sometimes “progress” as we view it in the 21st century is far from desirable.

It can be a bitter cupful to swallow, even for those who understand some of the ecological cost of our modern ways of agriculture and science and intensive farming practices. Most people don’t even see the changes to our entire ecosystem these “progressive” practices have wrought in less than a single generation. The decimation of animal habitat and species and the equal decimation of plant variety and habitat.

Stemple says in the preface: “Now that I look back, I see that I have written in some anger....The Farmer is to blame. The Supermarket too. And let us not forget the Politician, and the Consumer. Let us not omit Me, or You. Really: I just want the birds back.”

“Every time one buys the lie of cheap food,” he says later, “a flower or a bird dies.” It doesn’t take an agronomist to see the truth of these words. Just in my Midwestern community I can see the impact - the endless plowed fields without even a line of trees remaining to mark the divisions between them. The industrial livestock farms with their stink of feces and confinement and mass-production.

THE RUNNING HARE is about Stemple’s attempt to grow and tend a wheat field using vintage farming practices, in an attempt to lure back some of the dwindling species of wildlife that once depended on these fields - partidges, pheasants, skylarks, rabbits...and most importantly, hares.

He sows the small field by hand. He also sows wide margins of wildflowers, to replicate the way fields had existed in the days before mechanical reaping and sowing, and lays out tables of seed to entice the birds. He uses no chemicals on his fields, and when he reaps he bundles the wheat into old-fashioned sheaves.

Along the way we learn a little about seemingly everything rural - agricultural history, scientific studies of bird and wildlife decline, botany, modern agriculture, Lepidoptera, Shakespeare, agrarian poetry, and the history of English hedges, just to name a few.

It seems a bit scattered at times, less cohesive as I say than MEADOWLAND, but a fascinating and beautiful read nonetheless, full of an earthy poetry and passion. I feel I leave it a little wiser and a little more awake to the beauty and life that surrounds me and my own impact upon it.

[Pauline Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started so well. For a time, I thought for sure it was going to be a five star read. The story of a year spent working a modest acreage of land using only traditional methods, and seeing what wildlife returns to it, is a fascinating concept, and this part of the book I loved wholeheartedly. The author has a deep affinity with the land, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the birds, animals, flowers and even the worms which used to inhabit every acre of farmland, and he makes a strong case for preserving the time-honoured methods rather than modern chemical-fuelled agriculture.

Of course, he does cheat a bit to get his field on the right track. He sows, and in some cases plants by hand, wildflowers where he wants them. Even before the field has been ploughed, he has set up bird tables to feed the local birds and encourage them to hang around. And someone gifts him the all-important hares. But still, the amount of wildlife that finds its way there, and stays to breed in many cases, is impressive. Even the earthworms are more numerous at the end of the year’s experiment.
Along the way, the author’s skill with words makes this a beautiful piece of writing, often poetic in its lyricism.

But… perhaps he felt that this was not enough, because he increasingly includes all sorts of other bits and pieces that are only tangentially related to the field. There are extracts from historical works, poems, pages and pages of quotations from Shakespeare and on and on. It’s not that these are uninteresting, but for me it’s the details about farming, including the author’s own upbringing as a farming child, that make the book fascinating.

So although I enjoyed the book, the inclusion of so much additional material (which I was skipping over wholesale by the end) keeps it to four stars for me.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. What a superb book and wonderful read.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nominated for Wainwright Prize 2017....I hope it wins!
The author has seen hares in the moonglow
gazed at the heavens
he's felt the true peace on earth.
It is a gem!
#MustRead
PS Yes, jackdaws are the original dysfunctional family!

[Beverley Mulliner · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't have to be a farmer to enjoy this delightful book! Written with humour, knowledge and a deep love of wildlife, it entertains, teaches and makes you want to do what the author has done and attempt to turn back the clock or at least try to halt further destruction of our landscape along with the animal and plant life that lives on it. I'll definitely look out for more books by John Lewis-Stempel!!

[Anne Fenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read. First, it's poetry, second it's about the English countryside.

[Saturday's Child · Rating 4 out of 5]

With his skilful descriptions and writing style John Lewis-Stempel made me feel like I was standing in Flinders watching nature.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you would only read one book by this author you should try Meadowlands first, I like it more, and not only because I read it first I think, it was more compelling. But I still liked this one very much, and for several reasons. First, it reminds me of my granddad and his farm where I helped out in the harvesting in a long hot summer (and played a lot). Second, I love this kind of micro-histories of one place at a defined period of time. Third, it made me dream and feel like going out, walking, and finally buying myself that pair of strong binoculars and pick up my old (very old) birdwatching hobby. Fourth, it scared me, nature seems to be disappearing under our very eyes, I see it in Belgium too, and yes, I go to farmers markets and bio food hubs, but still buy the bulk of our food in a supermarket, so I am as much to blame as somebody else. But, a lovely book this, and like Meadowlands, beautifully edited.

[Andy Horton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smashing bit of nature writing. John Lewis-Stempel rented a field, with permission to turn it over to wildflower cultivation in its first year, and documented the diverse wildlife it attracted.
Lots of reflective writing, and a sense of the real joy that the natural world brings the writer, along with some arguments for encouraging diversity in agriculture. Also a wariness of concentrating our attention too heavily on "charismatic species" - although it has to be said the hares Lewis-Stempel loves so much are certainly charismatic.

[Andrea Swinsco · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not my taste in narrative, but it will certainly please a wide audience.
It is both a love letter to the past and a call to action. I found it overly sentimental but as I said, it’s not my usual choice of literature. The author is right when he said that farmers love to complain, and he definitely a farmer at heart! Saying that, it is a beautifully written piece and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves the English countryside.

[Grace Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me a while this, despite being quite short. It felt a little too padded out in parts with long quotes added in that served little to no purpose of what the book is aiming to do. I enjoyed the progress of Flinders field from start to finish, taking it from a disused field to a ploughed haven for nature below and above ground. Bringing back the birds, bees, flowers, worms and more. It’s nice to see how the old-world way of farming can still work in the modern day. Country folk country ways!

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a while to get into and finish it, but I think I've found my English Barry Lopez. Wonderful, evocative writing. If I found it mildly depressing, it isn't his fault - it's simply a fact that our natural habitats are declining everywhere, not just in England. At least he's giving an honest estimation of what we still have, and how little it would take to bring back some of what we've lost.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read, quite interesting to see the life and regeneration of a field into an arable one and how the species of birds and insects thrives, along with the hares.

I enjoyed this but not as much I did the previous books I have read by John Lewis Stempel

[Callum · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my last 2 books I've done Antarctica and desert planet so English countryside and wildlife has been a nice switch up.

Now I'm doing Dune Messiah and a book about Africa, then maybe return to Antarctic explorers 🥴

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Not my normal read. I found myself yearning for a life I’ve never had and mourning a way of life that has sadly fallen by the wayside.

The author is very clearly knowledgable and writes from experience rather than theory.

The only book that’s made we want plant wheat. 😀

[Rod MacLeod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply brilliant! What an extraordinary writer he is. Such an engaging tale of his attempts to change the ecology of a single field.
This is simply a joy to read

[John Purcell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had me rambling around the countryside in search of nature.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book and narration. If only everyone could be such an ethical human 🥰

[Anne Chappel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this gentle story of the English countryside, of the life in the pastures - the story of how farming once used to be. He also includes some beautiful poetry and lots of interesting facts about the creatures that he comes across. It is truly delightful read and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in our environment and what is happening to it.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not have chosen a book more up my alley -- a blend of history, ecology, agriculture, culture, and UK spirit! Another great read for my time in the UK!

[Roxanne Hawkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing to read what can happen to a piece of barren land and to wildlife within the space of a year when it is given the opportunity.