The Peregrine: The Hill of Summer & Diaries: The Complete Works of J. A. Baker
Mark Cocker
J. A. Baker
J. A. Baker’s extraordinary classic of British nature writingDespite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J A Baker spent a long winter looking and writing about the visitors from the uplands – peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons and waders that share the desolate landscape with them.Including original diaries from which The Peregrine was written and its companion volume The Hill of Summer, this is a beautiful compendium of lyrical nature writing at its absolute best. Such luminaries as Richard Mabey, Robert Macfarlane, Ted Hughes and Andrew Motion have cited this as one of the most important books in 20th Century nature writing, and the bestselling author Mark Cocker has provided an introduction on the importance of Baker, his writings and the diaries – creating the essential volume of Baker's writings.Papers, maps, and letters have recently come to light which in turn provide a little more background into J A Baker’s history. Contemporaries – particularly from his time at school in Chelmsford – have provided insights, remembering a school friend who clearly made an impact on his generation.Among fragments of letters to Baker was one from a reader who praised a piece that Baker had written in RSPB Birds magazine in 1971. Apart from a paper on peregrines which Baker wrote for the Essex Bird Report, this article – entitled On the Essex Coast – appears to be his only other published piece of writing, and, with the agreement of the RSPB, it has been included in this updated new paperback edition of Baker’s astounding work.
The Peregrine
The Hill of Summer & Diaries
The Complete Work of
J. A Baker
Introduction by Mark Cocker & Edited by John Fanshawe
Copyright
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)
The Peregrine © J. A. Baker, 1967
The Hill of Summer © J. A. Baker, 1969
The Diaries © J. A. Baker, 2010
On the Essex Coast © J. A. Baker, 1971. Published in RSPB Birds magazine 3 (II) (Sept/Oct, 1971): 281–283
Introduction © Mark Cocker, 2010
Diaries edited by John Fanshawe, 2010
Notes on J. A. Baker © John Fanshawe, 2011
Cover photographs © ImageBroker/Imagebroker/FLPA; Foto Natura Stock/FLPA; Malcolm Schuyl/FLPA; Dietmar Nill/naturepl.com; ImageBroker/Imagebroker/FLPA
Cover designed by Lee Motley
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
THE PEREGRINE. © Mark Cocker, 2010. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007395903
Ebook Edition © MAY 2011 ISBN: 9780007437382
Version: 2017-08-03
Contents
Cover (#u5eb38d0e-3179-524c-ad2c-b7b653ccdff0)
Title Page (#uc887cef6-17e4-5346-8c82-bd269c53b932)
Copyright
Introduction by Mark Cocker
Notes on J. A. Baker by John Fanshawe
The Peregrine
Beginnings
Peregrines
The Hunting Life (#ulink_45896771-3f2b-5f51-95ec-796a92da4c7d)
The Hill of Summer
April: Woods and Fields
May: A Storm
May: The Pine Wood
May: A Journey
May: Downland
June: Beech Wood
June: The Sea and the Moor
June: Midsummer
July: A River
July: The Heath
August: Estuary
September: The Hill