A FOREST BY NIGHT FRED J SPEAKMAN BELL AND SONS 1965 1st edition. 22 x 14 cm. 194 pp. HB/DJ Fred Speakman comes of country stock with a family history on his father's side of 900 years of farming. His father who knew and loved the country life, remained a countryman to the end. It is natural that when tragedy emptied his life, the author should turn to the countryside, the Epping Forest he had known since boyhood. Long interested in the problems of its wild life, he determined to do what probably nobody else would have the chance to do and spend his nights in the Forest for the round of a whole year, to watch animals—and to find a new basis for living. This book tells the story of the nights he spent, winter and summer, spring and autumn, alone under the trees. It is unique. The author writes of a world that few know. The world of badger, fox and deer, of quiet bitter frost and roaring gales, of summer evenings of the nightjar and the squirrel, interlaced with history and anecdote. It tells of the birth of his long friendship with Dr Ludwig Koch, of hearing the "singers in the dawn", of Forest mysteries. The author speaks with gratitude of the kindness of a keeper and his wife, of what their friendship meant in his loneliness. He captures the magic of sound, sight and scent, seeing and listening with the heart of a poet. Such a book must vary in intensity and mood as in the incidents it recounts. The year begins with loneliness. It ends in a triumph of faith and hope.

A FOREST BY NIGHT

FRED J. SPEAKMAN

G. BELL AND SONS
1965

First edition.
Fred Speakman comes of country stock with a family history on his father's side of 900 years of farming. His father who knew and loved the country life, remained a countryman to the end.

It is natural that when tragedy emptied his life, the author should turn to the countryside, the Epping Forest he had known since boyhood. Long interested in the problems of its wild life, he determined to do what probably nobody else would have the chance to do and spend his nights in the Forest for the round of a whole year, to watch animals—and to find a new basis for living.

This book tells the story of the nights he spent, winter and summer, spring and autumn, alone under the trees. It is unique. The author writes of a world that few know. The world of badger, fox and deer, of quiet bitter frost and roaring gales, of summer evenings of the nightjar and the squirrel, interlaced with history and anecdote. It tells of the birth of his long friendship with Dr Ludwig Koch, of hearing the "singers in the dawn", of Forest mysteries. The author speaks with gratitude of the kindness of a keeper and his wife, of what their friendship meant in his loneliness.

He captures the magic of sound, sight and scent, seeing and listening with the heart of a poet. Such a book must vary in intensity and mood as in the incidents it recounts. The year begins with loneliness. It ends in a triumph of faith and hope.

22 x 14 cm. 194 pp.

Fine condition. Dust jacket slightly faded on the spine and with a small amount of edge wear. Book itself exceptionally clean and tidy.





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