Chapter 11 - Under the Rock by Benjamin Myers

Welcome back to the Never-ending Book Story. I hope you are keeping well and staying safe and that you are finding the lockdown bearable. It seems to feel quite normal now. It's funny how something so drastic quickly becomes the accepted reality. My family and I feel very fortunate to be able to access peaceful, relaxing countryside within a few minutes walk of our house. With a 6-year-old boy in tow who needs to be exercised daily like a dog, we are thankful we have some empty, open space to utilise. Just lately we have really been enjoying connecting with the outside world and our son loves exploring and spotting wildlife. In the last few days alone, we have seen plenty of rabbits, butterflies and birds. Others, I know, are not quite so fortunate. As I mentioned in the previous chapter, there is something very calming about the natural world. It is so good for the mind to get out into the fresh air and to be among the trees, plants and wildlife. I really feel for those who can't get out of the house because they are shielding or don't have access to anywhere rural. If that's you, here are some photos I took on one of our walks earlier in the week. Maybe even just seeing some nice photos will help soothe you...and following on from the visit to Watership Down in the last chapter, you might even spot some rabbits if you look close enough!

For this chapter, I'm continuing the theme of engaging with nature. But this time, it's non-fiction. Under the Rock by Benjamin Myers was sent to me as part of a book subscription from Mr B's Emporium - a fabulous little bookshop in Bath. I would describe this book as part journal, part natural history. There're even some photos and poems thrown in for good measure. It's a real all-rounder of a book. Here's what the blurb on the back says:

Under the Rock is about badgers, balsam, history, nettles, mythology, moorlands, mosses, poetry, bats, wild swimming, slugs, recession, floods, logging, peacocks, community, apples, asbestos, quarries, geology, industrial music, owls, stone walls, farming, anxiety, relocation, the North, woodpiles, folklore, landslides, ruins, terriers, woodlands, ravens, dales, valleys, walking, animal skulls, trespassing, crows, factories, maps, rain - lots of rain - and a great big rock.

There's so much to love about this book - especially now. It's beautifully written and, even if you're not familiar with the part of the world that much of the book covers, you will feel like you know it well by the time you reach the end. And it's abundantly clear how the author feels about the place. West Yorkshire is definitely somewhere I'd like to get to know more after reading this (and, of course, after we get out of this lockdown). 

The eponymous rock is located in Mytholmroyd (read the book for the definitive information on exactly how to pronounce it!) and it's a kind of scar in the landscape that looms over the village. The author and his family relocate there from London and the book acts rather like a journal or diary for his thoughts on and discoveries in the local area. It doesn't start off to well, though - their removal man tells them he moved a woman to a street nearby a few months previously, She had been looking for a new start. "killed herself after two months" he helpfully informs them.

I really liked the description of the pool the author would visit to enjoy a spot of wild swimming. For a minute, I considered jogging down to the river a few minutes walk from my house and jumping in. Another day, maybe. But I can see why wild swimming is such a popular activity - especially in more remote locations like the one described in the book. As the author suggests, it is a great way to really connect with the natural world:

This simple act, undertaken for thousands of years, offers perhaps the ultimate communion with landscape and is responsible for some of the best pieces of writing from those Romantic poets who drew on the sublime experience including Byron and Coleridge, Swinburne, Southey and Shelley...

And the pool itself with its waterfall sounds so invitingly mysterious and ethereal:

I swim towards the main flow beneath the falls where the water is like a rolling boil, an unrelenting and hypnotic squall of foam and fret...if  I manoeuvre round it there is a shelf of rock on which I can sit, carefully positioning myself so the water thuds at my neck, back and shoulders. Here the noise is thunderous, the massage intense...

Talking of water, there is a lot of coverage of the flooding which affected the area a few years ago (the recent floods again hit the same area very hard). Our house has twice been flooded so I have a great deal of sympathy with those affected (far worse than we were). Floods make for a great news headlines - especially when the government response is so woeful. But long after the story dries up on the front pages and the evening news, those affected are still dealing with the clean-up operation. There's a particularly harrowing scene where Myers and other locals rescue local residents trapped in their homes by the rapidly rising waters.

It does just go to show that not everything is rosy in rural locations. Step into your local bookshop (not now, obviously) and you will find shelf after shelf of nature writing. Very Idylic. But not necessarily a fair or balanced reflection of reality. Nice to see that Myers addresses this:

They are escapist representations, bucolic wood-cut renderings of a modern rural world one step removed from the reality. Beautifully written, but over precious. Few seem prepared to tackle the more insidious side of the landscape...

He goes on to talk about Peter Sutcliffe, Harold Shipman and Jimmy Saville. Dark times indeed. Let's not dwell on that, though. Times are bleak enough. But it’s a point well made. We can all be for given for needing to seek solace in the romanticism of nature writing right now.

One thing I do enjoy at the moment is sitting in my garden on a dusky evening watching the bats flit around overhead. I’m never quite sure if bats are really cute or really sinister. I guess it’s the association with Dracula that’s become so ingrained in us. They are incredible creatures, though. My son and I were recently watching an episode of Deadly 60 which featured a cave in Mexico home to giant centipedes which dangle from the ceiling and catch passing bats for their dinner! Don’t have nightmares... In Under the Rock, Myers tells an amazing anecdote. One night, when watching bats, a car pulls over on the nearby road and it transpires that the driver had hit a bat. It's clinging to the grille on the front of the vehicle. Myers rescues the tiny creature which weighs around the same as a 20p coin. Myers calls the local batman for help. Nigel, who works for the local bat rescue branch, arrives (on the morning of his daughter's wedding no less) and takes the bat into his care. After a couple of weeks, Myers gets a knock on his door. It's Nigel again. The rescued bat is recovered and ready for re-release into the wild. Together they release him back to where he came from. What a lovely story.

As I mentioned, the book includes some poems. Here's my favourite:

On Lighting the First Fire

Autumn burns

the sky

the woods 

the valley

death is everywhere

but beneath its golden cloak

the seeds of

a summer's

dreaming still sing 

I really enjoyed this book. Another author to add to my #TBRList!! And hopefully yours too. If you can get hold of this book then I'd highly recommend it.

I was thinking about how much I value time spent in the countryside and how much I'd like to live in a more rural location. For next time, I'll be looking at Wilding by Isabella Tree (now there's a fantastic example of an aptronym if ever there was one!!). The true story of farmers who, facing the financial difficulties of modern farming, decide to give up the agricultural way of life to allow their land to return to a natural habitat for wildlife. Sounds fascinating.

I hope you can join me for that. In the meantime, what nature writing would you recommend? Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments. Until the next chapter, stay safe and well......