What got you started? Was it a book?
Remember you can join in the conversation over at Substack - no paywall (though if you feel flush ....)
I am talking about my love of nature - but it could be any other passion too - so often it is books that draw us deep.
Though it could be empty nest syndrome .... as Kitty Johnson from Norwich has found - resulting in her setting up a hedgehog rescue!
For me, it was largely innate - I was born with a love of nature. This was not reflected by my adopted parents - they had other interests. Though on meeting my biological mother over 20 years ago - well that clarified things!
But that innate love of nature was definitely developed by books ... and as I write that I see a potentially circular argument - in that I was drawn to books about nature because of my innate love ... hmmmm ... please do join in the discussion about this!
The reason I bring this up is because of a website that has just published a list of five books that have influenced my thinking. I was delighted to be asked to contribute my thoughts on this - but the exercise was fascinatingly challenging ...
Have a read of my list - and then how about sharing your own! I wonder whether your books are cast in stone - that it is easy ... or whether, like me, you found your list changing minute by minute! It is a really interesting exercise ...
What might surprise you is that there are no hedgehogs in the list!! And early on, my reading about nature did not feature the animal that was to become my touchstone ... there was a lot of James Herriot (I hoped to become a vet until I realised how rubbish I was at exams!) and Jacques Cousteau (next plan was to be a marine biologist).
Jane Goodall is probably the key to the journey I have taken, though. While there was an initial yearning to move to Africa - the message I took from her work with the chimpanzees was about communication - how it is possible to share complex science through stories. Oh, and she gave me permission to give my hedgehogs names!
Her work is probably what would have been constant on any list - there are just SO MANY amazing books out there ... I went to Alick Simmons next - Treated Like Animals was an important influence on my latest book, Cull of the Wild. Then Braiding Sweetgrass - because meeting Robin Wall Kimmerer (for the recording of Start the Week) was a moment when you realise the saying 'don't meet your heroes' was coined by someone who made some very poor choices of hero!
Next up was Kate Bradbury's amazing book, One Garden Against The World ... filled with anger, nature - and lots of hedgehogs - this book is essential reading. Finally I chose a novel ... please, track down, 'Drive your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead' by Olga Tokarczuk - magnificent.
Reasons for my choices up on the Shepherd website now - worth a look - and please, share your ideas!
If you would like to hear more of my ramblings - drop into the lovely 'Plodcast' I recorded with Fergus Collins - this is a BBC Countryfile Magazine related thing and was great fun ... let me know what you think!