An excerpt from Kazim Ali 's book, Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water , forthcoming March 2021.
Diary of a Young Naturalist
From sixteen-year-old Dara McAnulty, a globally renowned figure in the youth climate activist movement, comes a memoir about loving the natural world and fighting to save it.
Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of a year in Dara’s Northern Ireland home patch. Beginning in spring—when “the sparrows dig the moss from the guttering and the air is as puffed out as the robin’s chest”—these diary entries about his connection to wildlife and the way he sees the world are vivid, evocative, and moving.
As well as Dara’s intense connection to the natural world, Diary of a Young Naturalist captures his perspective as a teenager juggling exams, friendships, and a life of campaigning. We see his close-knit family, the disruptions of moving and changing schools, and the complexities of living with autism. “In writing this book,” writes Dara, “I have experienced challenges but also felt incredible joy, wonder, curiosity and excitement. In sharing this journey my hope is that people of all generations will not only understand autism a little more but also appreciate a child’s eye view on our delicate and changing biosphere.”
Winner of the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing and already sold into more than a dozen territories, Diary of a Young Naturalist is a triumphant debut from an important new voice.
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Praise and Prizes
“Dara’s is an extraordinary voice and vision: brave, poetic, ethical, lyrical, strong enough to have made him heard and admired from a young age.”
Robert Macfarlane
author of Underland: A Deep Time Journey
“A combination of nature book and memoir, a warm portrait of a close-knit family and a coming-of-age story . . . Simple, gorgeous sentences unfurl, one after another.”
The Guardian
“Intimate, sensitive, deeply felt . . . [McAnulty’s] prose is both spirited and spiritual, performing an intensive phenomenological survey of the wildlife around his home, bringing the reader into deep, occasionally uncomfortably close communion with the insects, plants and, above all, the birds of Northern Ireland. . . . The depth of his feeling illuminates every page of this miraculous memoir. It’s a book that succeeds in describing the deep and complex pleasure of immersion in nature.”
The Observer (UK)
“Wise, lyrical, and well-researched . . . McAnulty’s way of experiencing the world, his candid enthusiasm, his powers of observation, his passion for nature—all are being rediscovered by a world population forced to stop short and take stock. . . . Reading this marvellous diary leaves me with the impression that whatever the future holds, with young people like McAnulty coming to the fore it will be in safer hands.”
Irish Times
“Like reading William Blake, or Ted Hughes, [this] really is a strange and magical experience. . . . [Diary of a Young Naturalist] will surely be one of the most original and talked about nature books, or any books, this year.”
Daily Mail (UK)
“This book is very pertinent. It’s a diary but essentially timeless. It’s about enduring, it’s about passion, beauty and connection. It’s really, really special.”
Chris Packham, author of Fingers in the Sparkle Jar
“A beautifully written, profoundly important classic of nature writing that will ignite a passion for the wild in every reader. A stunning achievement. I adored it.”
Lauren St John, author of The White Giraffe
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