LS2: Books

REVIEW - A Year in the Woods

Colin Elford

With illustrations, a glossary of forestry terms and the main body of writing being divided into the months of a year in the ranger’s life, this is not your average autobiography.This cute, almost pocket-sized book written by the Dorset forest ranger Colin Elford, provides refreshing and natural snapshots of his daily adventures in the Woods.

It functions more as a handbook – easy to dip in and out of – as Elford guides the reader through the forest to encounter a diverse and abundant display of wildlife. He offers intelligent and knowledgeable insight into the animal activity of everything from the butterfly to the fox, as well as getting caught up in it himself with close encounters with sparrowhawks hunting, badger cubs playing and male deer fighting.

However, most of Elford’s engagement with the forest wildlife seems to involve dispatching the deer, and sometimes the odd squirrel, though the latter manage to craftily dodge his rifle more often than not. Perhaps it’s not a read for the fainthearted, though he does at least admit, ‘I never liked shooting anything on my… Continue reading...