Great observers of nature in long-gone days

The Irish Poet and the Natural World: An Anthology of Verse in English from the Tudors to the Romantics

edited by Andrew Carpenter and Lucy Collins (Cork University Press, €39.00/£19.95)

The many readers who would be interested in the theme of the American derived anthology above should also look out as well for the this book, edited and published in Ireland.

This covers a period – 1580 to 1820 – when writing about nature was beginning to emerge as a genre. However, it cuts off to at an early date – the editors are specialists in the 17th and 18th Centuries. Also some of the writers may well be less familiar to readers than those from the last two centuries.

It would seem then that is there room in the market place, let alone the classroom, for a more extensive anthology that deals with all sorts of writing about nature, and not merely the ‘literary’.

No one rereads Gilbert White or Henry Hudson just because they are great writers, but because they are great observers of nature.

And in the same way R. L. Praeger is an important Irish writer, whatever view you take.