Springtime in Britain: An 11,000 mile journey through the natural history of Britain from Land's End to John O'Groats

by Edwin Way Teale

The decorative dust jacket adds much to this vintage hardcover. The jacket shows one small tear at back top and a little fading, otherwise like new condition. Book is like new inside, free of markings, bright and clean. /lh

Genres: Travel, Nature, Nonfiction

406 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Edwin Way Teale was an American naturalist, photographer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. Teale's works serve as primary source material documenting environmental conditions across North America from 1930 - 1980. He is perhaps best known for his series The American Seasons, four books documenting over 75,000 miles (121,000 km) of automobile travel across North America following the changing seasons.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Teale a few years ago through the exceptional Autumn Across America, the first volume of a quartet illuminating the nature of the four seasons in the USA; he won a Pulitzer for the final book. Here he applied the same pattern across the pond, taking an 11,000-mile road trip around Britain with his wife Nellie. It’s a delight to see the country through his eyes, particularly places I know well (Devon, the New Forest, Wiltshire/Berkshire) or have visited recently (Northumberland). They find the early spring alarmingly cold and wet, but before long are rewarded with swathes of daffodils and bluebells. Several stake-outs finally result in hearing a nightingale. For the most part, the bird life is completely new to them, but he remarks on what North American species the European birds remind him of. “We felt we would travel to Britain just to hear the song thrush and the blackbird,” he maintains.

Nellie develops pneumonia and has to convalesce in Kent, but otherwise personal matters hardly come into the narrative. Teale is well versed in English nature writing and often references classics by the likes of John Clare and Gilbert White that inspired destinations. (They spend an excessive number of days on their pilgrimage to White’s Selborne.) He also reports on perceived threats of the time, such as small animals getting stuck in littered milk bottles. While it was, inevitably, a little distressing to think of the abundance and diversity he was still experiencing in the late 1960s that has since been lost to development, I mostly found this a pleasant meander. Some things never change: the magic of prehistoric sites; the grossness of some cities (“we forgot the misadventure of Slough”).

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so disappointed in this book! I love England, love reading about nature, being outdoors, the seasons. Love reading about exploring new places, the serendipity of unknown places. So why didn't I love this book?

Because the author is no writer. He struggled along from town to village to tor to gorge, and although he described what he and his wife saw, and did, the words never came alive, and I never "saw" what he saw. Dull and dreary, it could have been an economics textbook for all the firing it did of my imagination.

[Adie · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Teale is a favorite author, this is not my favorite of his books. It was lovely though, and I especially enjoyed reading it while also seeing many of the places mentioned on BBC programs. I don't know why but this was not his usual poetic description of loved nature. It seemed reserved somehow and yet included more personal information than recorded in previous works. All in all, it will stay in my collection, but I hope for more as I continue though his many works.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wavering between 3 stars and 4 stars. A naturalist who got his B.A. in English literature makes connections between books and poems and the English countryside with its flora and fauna - makes me ready for spring.

[Alyssa Bohon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a travelogue with mediocre literary merit; but, it is so packed with interesting detail, scenes, history, and anecdotes that it makes delightful light reading for Anglophile people like me who cannot travel afar and want to see through the eyes of books. Dartmoor, the Lake District, skylarks, puffins, lochs, it's all in here.

The Christian perspective: An undercurrent that stood out to me was a sense of trying to fill a bucket (think bucket list) with places, scenes, and memories, and somehow trying to convince the reader, and the writer himself, that this was satisfying enough - without God (he mentions with reverence the great work of naturalists like Darwin who opened the door to science without a need to "resort to the supernatural"). We now have the wonderful world of nature and science, we are not deluded by religious baggage...but, how quickly life passes, and we cannot hold onto it... Even as I enjoyed following the journey, I didn't really envy their opportunity, because I could see that even such a long-awaited delight as traveling in the English countryside can not make a soul without Christ really happy. It was a grand checklist, but ultimately for what?..

That was a philosophical musing on an undercurrent. I don't think that undercurrent floods out the whole book, but I thought it was worth reflection. The fact that this was published in 1979 also makes it uniquely interesting. These are people who have been through WW2, in the modern world, but much less than we are. That in itself adds interesting perspective to the whole read.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've heard good things about Edwin Way Teale's nature writing but learned after I started this that it isn't his best piece to start with. There were interesting tidbits amongst dreariness. I had a hard time picturing the places based on Teale's descriptions. There were some black and white photographs in sections but not as many as I could have wished.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will be was on my currently-reading list for a long time. It's the kind of quiet adventure to read slowly and savor. Teale infuses all the vistas he explores with a joy and a well-informed appreciation that he so obviously is pleased to share.

From Land's End to John o' Groats, Teale and his wife explore the flora and fauna (the avian fauna, mostly) of Britain, covering some 10,000 miles and interspersing their nature watching and writing with local history, folklore, and general landscape. A lovely book.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice mix of travelogue and nature writing. I love the story of Teale and his wife taking an 11,000 mile road trip through Britain (probably because that's what I'd like to do someday). Teale takes almost every winding country road, always in pursuit of a particular flower, plant, bird, animal, or vista. Teale does a wonderful job of weaving stories about British poets and naturalists into his story. I really enjoyed reading his thoughts on places I've been, and he definitely inspires the armchair traveler to think about future trips.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of natural history touring in a foreign land by one of the most perceptive naturalist of the 20th century. I ended up with a pile of book titles by preminent 19th century English naturalist to check out from the reading.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit about the English and their countryside. Sort of an armchair travelogue.