Seasonal Reading

We often picture reading as an indoor activity: snuggling deep into an armchair beside a warm fireplace with a familiar reread or getting your favourite window seat in a local café from which you can watch the world go by between paragraphs of a new bestseller.  And for practical reasons, reading is often not an activity best enjoyed while exposed to the elements: the printed page does not appreciate blustery weather or sudden downpours.

This doesn’t mean we have to feel cut-off from the outside world when we are engrossed in our reading, though: there are plenty of books written specifically to keep us feeling connected to the world outside our windows, divided chronologically, by month or by season, guiding us through the year with every page.

These seasonal reads have become a regular feature in our home, and I have at least one (if not more) on the go at any one time.  I consult these books like I would a very well-informed friend; a companion who can always tell me about the changing flora, fauna and weather in the garden, the fields, the hedgerows and the woodlands, as well as the rhythms of the agricultural and ecclesiastical years; someone who always has astute reflections, sound advice and miscellaneous facts that complement the changing seasons.

Some of the best seasonal reading has been written seasonally: collections of short articles written for newspapers and periodicals that capture the seasons unconsciously, simply from having been written by someone completely immersed in their rhythms.  Books like this include the beautifully written little Countryman’s Notebook essays by Adrian Bell for the Eastern Daily Press (recently republished by Slightly Foxed), Lark Rise to Candleford author Flora Thompson’s nature pieces for the Catholic Fireside titled The Peverel Papers, and Ronald Blythe’s Word From Wormingford articles for Church Times.  If you are new to the idea of seasonal reading, this is where I would recommend you start.

There is a longstanding tradition within religious communities for devotionals: daily reflections on faith to aid religious contemplation, prayer and action, covering either the whole year or just a single season.  In the Christian tradition, these are often associated with Advent or Lent, and many of these are well worth exploring even if you’re not a Christian, as the themes explored are often universal: Rachel Mann’s In The Bleak Midwinter, Nicholas Holtam’s Sleepers Wake and Amy Orr-Ewing’s Mary’s Voice are particularly moving.

It is worth planning your seasonal reading in advance, as books define a ‘year’ in various ways.  Publishing generally seems to favour books that align with the calendar year – January to December – but that is not the only (or even most sensible) definition.  Agricultural books, like John Lewis-Stempel’s The Wood and Still Water for example, begin in November or December, while those that have a Christian focus, such as Ronald Blythe’s Word from Wormingford, commence with the ecclesiastical year, at the beginning of Advent.  Those writers who examine the pagan ‘wheel of the year’ remind us that the natural year doesn’t really have a ‘beginning’, though for practical reasons the printed book have to begin somewhere, and usually choose either the Winter Solstice on 21 or 22 December, or Imbolc on 1 February.  And that’s before you begin to consider the different cultural New Years around the world!

Seasonal Suggestions

If you are looking for inspiration for a seasonal companion read yourself, here are a few suggestions to get you started, but if you have any recommendations, please let us know!

Adrian Bell, Countryman’s Notebook series

Adrian Bell wrote his Countryman’s Notebook column for the Eastern Daily Press for more than thirty years, tracing the patterns of agriculture and nature in rural East Anglia throughout the year.  His short essays may focus on small, detailed observations – a ray of sunlight through a window, or a wildflower growing at the roadside – but together they present an authentic vision of a world where agriculture works with nature, instead of against it, and urges for a slower pace of living: both things very close to our hearts!

Ronald Blythe, Word from Wormingford

Like Adrian Bell, Ronald Blythe was a sensitive observer of the rhythms of rural life.  In his Word from Wormingford columns, he writes about these rhythms from the perspective of his church duties for the combined parishes of Wormingford, Mount Bures and Little Horkesley in Essex.  These little essays combine this with compassion for the people of his community and an inquisitive, sharp intelligence.

Elizabeth Holden, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady

Something of the classic ‘seasonal read’, Edith Holden’s Nature Notes for 1906 was transformed into a facsimile edition in 1977 under the title The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.  It is a complete nature journal, beautifully illustrated and full of entries charting the changes in the countryside throughout the seasons around her home in Olton, in what was then Warwickshire.  It went on to be something of a phenomenon, spawning other books, household items, clothing, and even a television series!

Flora Thompson, The Peverel Papers

The Peverel Papers is also a collection of articles written for a regular column.  Flora Thompson, best known as author of Lark Rise to Candleford, wrote her pieces for the Catholic Fireside between 1922 and 1927.  In this series of short essays, she writes movingly about the nature and landscape she saw around her on the heathland of the South Downs.  The selection we own is beautifully illustrated with woodcuts and line drawings by C. F. Tunnicliffe.