I have just finished listening to English Pastoral by James Rebank. His tale is full of loss and sadness for the land his family has farmed over three generations. In Wales it is called Hiraeth, how often I have heard that word on the radio. It means homesickness and a longing for familiar things.
Most of us having wandered away from home have found ourselves in different parts of our small island, commuting to faraway relatives, sometimes finding our rootedness in a special place, other times we live with someone we love, not a bad choice I think.
But there is a price for freedom, we lose that centre of home with the hearth of security. Rebank takes comfort in his growing children and going against the land destroying farming methods we undertake at the moment. It started after the last war I suppose, the drive to produce enough food to feed everyone, but we took a false road learning to destroy an old way of life and what is more sinful destroying the natural world along the way. Now we weep for the vanishing curlew as the great computer driven machines are oblivious to their eggs laid so carelessly in the open tidy fields.
Of course many people fight for the natural world, in this country we make laws to protect them. we are probably kinder to our pigs and hens than Europe, having made illegal caged hens and those terrible farrow crating hells for pigs and their young. Beavers have suddenly found protection under law and they will be brought back from other sites in Europe, the badger is less lucky. The fox has a smidgen of protection from the hunters, and the dear deer have proliferated with gay abandon, forcing our prime minister to say 'go eat venison' to the hungry!
Yes the hungry still exist, poverty still lurks at the bottom of our society, no alleviation there still. We forgot to make rules for society as a whole you might say. The free let rip of the capitalist state said everything is on the table grab what you can. A few have grabbed, and now look silly with their greed patently on show. Human society never gets it right;)
So yes it was very enjoyable listening to his story of the family farm, but his sadness broke through for the rape of our land and yes there are farmers out there who are trying to arrive at a compromise but if our children do not find the wonders of the natural world, then we are responsible. Rebanks ends with the words 'tell it'. The story of the land...
Mary Colwell on losing our natural world.
Perhaps that's why I didn't finish it - too sad
ReplyDeleteI think listening to a book might make it a different thought process Sue. Must admit I hate sad books telling you the truth but we have to face up to reality..
DeleteYou remind me of our Yorkshire friends Bryan and Mary, who farmed there - until a fire and other unexpected disasters all happened one summer. We knew them as antique dealers. Bryan would always mark a Curlew's nest when he was out in the fields and farmed in the "old way" that we have largely lost.
ReplyDeleteThe fate of the curlew with its wonderful call is felt by many people. Just reading 'Working for Grouse' blog when he writes about them on his farm in Galloway tells of the difficulties they face, or the decisions that have to be made. Would you cull badgers for instance who eat curlew eggs?
ReplyDeleteJust catching up on blogs after a long while away. English Pastoral was an excellent book I thought. And yes a lament of loss.
ReplyDeleteWell I am glad you are back in blogland Mark. Perhaps we should leave little notes on our blogs like they do on emails 'out of office'.
ReplyDelete