Garden Tool Set

Book Review: The Wild Things Guide

Written to accompany the Channel 4 TV series, the Wild Things Guide was written by Dr. Trevor Dines, Sally Eaton, Clare Jones (from the production company), and Chris Myers.

The book doesn't follow the TV series with a chapter for each episode, but rather looks at specific environments; such as along transport links or mountains. The chapters explain the experiments shown in the TV series and explore many additional plants and lichens. Each chapter ends with a look to the future of that particular environment and the book concludes with a general look at what changes may occur over the next 50 years and how we can restore the balance to give our native plants a chance.

I didn't enjoy the book as much as the TV series. The overuse of the term 'wild things' was a constant irritation, although the term was used less as the book progressed. While Chris was the lead of the series, in the book he only writes a two page foreword and the majority of the writing is left to Trevor - understandably due to him being the botanical expert in a primarily botanical project. The one feature that I did really like in the book was the maps. While they were shown in the TV series, they didn't get much air time. It was wonderful to be able to spend time looking at them and seeing the trends, not only of time (when a species may have increased its population or declined), but also of distribution (for example down rivers or motorways).

While I wouldn't read the book again, it is worth reading as an introduction to a very important topic. That of landscape change in the British Isles from the perspective of plants.

One to read if you have a gap in your reading schedule, but not one to make space for until that gap becomes available. Also one to borrow rather than buy, in my opinion. This viewpoint may be skewed by my high expectations, but perhaps not.

Own or Loan:          Loan
Read Again:            No
Recommend:          Yes - because of the maps and plant histories
Overall out of Five: 2