- Published: 14/05/2020
- ISBN: 9781783781911
- Granta Books
- 352 pages
Wild Child
Patrick Barkham
From climbing trees and making dens, to building sandcastles and pond-dipping, many of the activities we associate with a happy childhood take place outdoors. And yet, the reality for many contemporary children is very different. The studies tell us that we are raising a generation who are so alienated from nature that they can’t identify the commonest birds or plants, they don’t know where their food comes from, they are shuttled between home, school and the shops and spend very little time in green spaces – let alone roaming free.
In this timely and personal book, celebrated nature writer Patrick Barkham draws on his own experience as a parent and a forest school volunteer to explore the relationship between children and nature. Unfolding over the course of a year of snowsuits, muddy wellies, and sunhats, Wild Child is both an intimate story of children finding their place in natural world, and a celebration of the delight we can all find in even modest patches of green.
£16.99
Patrick Barkham's entrancing Wild Child shows us how to reconnect our children with nature, to a world of excitement and discovery, of mud in the hair and joy in the heart. If ever there was a book to fuel the ecological interest of future generations, this is it. An inspiration for parents, grandparents and teachers, it is equally about showing adults how to recover their own joie de vivre
Isabella Tree
A must-read for all Britain's naturalists
Chris Packham
Barkham combines the patience and eye for detail of the naturalist with a vivid writing style