From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

The Peregrine

J.A. Baker,

Robert Macfarlane (Introduction)

Start date: October 1, 2026

Finish date: December 31, 2026

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Sep 03, 2017 Chrissie rated it liked it

Shelves: poetry, great-britain, audible-uk, 2017-read, fauna

The writing is exceptional. For this reason alone, it is worth reading. Nature writing that is prose poetry filled with synaesthetic imagery. The reader becomes one with a peregrine. I was told the book would infuse me with such a feeling, and it does.

Yet, not more than three stars? I liked the book. All in all, it wasn't amazing or even very good, and so it must be given three stars.

It is extremely difficult to listen to hours and hours of lines that say approximately the same thing, even if t The writing is exceptional. For this reason alone, it is worth reading. Nature writing that is prose poetry filled with synaesthetic imagery. The reader becomes one with a peregrine. I was told the book would infuse me with such a feeling, and it does.

Yet, not more than three stars? I liked the book. All in all, it wasn't amazing or even very good, and so it must be given three stars.

It is extremely difficult to listen to hours and hours of lines that say approximately the same thing, even if those lines are lyrical. The content is repetitive. Day by day we follow Baker as he walks and bicycles a small patch of land, ten miles north to south and twenty miles east to west in Essex, observing peregrines. We start in early fall and conclude in late spring. Each chapter begins with a date. We are told what he saw and experienced that day, and the next and the next and the next. Each day is much like the last. The seasons do change and Baker does come closer both physically and emotionally to that he observes. The peregrines' movements become a dance, lovely to observe and emotionally feel, but nevertheless monotonous in the lack of change. Every day an awakening, play, a hunt and the kill.

I listened to the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Peregrine. It begins with an introduction by Mark Cocker which is then followed by biographical notes. Finally, we get to Baker’s writing. Baker’s lines are followed by an afterword by Robert Macfarlane which is then followed by Baker’s short essay On the Essex Coast. There is a lot of padding. The supplementary material is not exclusive; too much of the information said in one section is repeated in another. The biographical information provided is scanty and repetitive, due to the manner in which the 50th Anniversary Edition has been put together.

The audiobook is narrated by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart. He reads too quickly. Should poetry be zipped through? I do not think so. The narration I have given two stars.

It should be noted that Baker observed peregrines over a ten-year period. He observed and every night returned home to transcribe his notes. He rewrote the book five times and condensed his observations to one year. So even if we are given a date, we do not know in which year that date fell, and thus the observations made are not necessarily in chronological order even if we do move from fall to spring. I do not doubt the veracity of the observations made.

Yet one does not read Baker’s writing for its scientific content, or at least not only for its scientific content. We have here writing that goes beyond the study of the peregrine as a species. Baker has attempted to capture the nature, the existence, indeed the soul of the bird. Baker’s writing is exceptional but also monotonous. ...more

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