The Shining Levels

 The Shining levels by John Wyatt was first published in 1973 and is the authors story of his time working as a forester in the Lake District.

My copy is a Little Toller Nature Classic reprint from 2012. The cover is from a detail from Lake Landscapes by L.S. Lowry.

John Wyatt was born in 1925 in among the factories and cotton mills of Lancashire but always felt like a country boy - escaping anytime he could to the fells and woods above the town. His first visit to the Lake District was with his Scout Group, where he found he loved the freedom and the closeness to nature. After leaving school aged 15 he spent a while working in a newspaper office, then as  telegraphist in the Navy during WWII. On leaving the navy he had a few jobs but  was desperate to get back to the countryside and took a job as a forest worker while doing a correspondence course on writing. He lived alone in a small hut working for the landowner and learning about the wildlife around his home. 

He became a campsite warden and then the first Park Ranger for the Lake District National Park in 1961 - working alone covering 866 square miles as the Park got busier with visitors. As more Rangers were hired he became Chief Ranger in 1973 and was awarded an M.B.E. for services to the National Park.

The Shining Levels is about the early days, before the National Park when he is working for one of the landowners at coppicing, hedging and ditching while living in a small rough hut - which comes with the job. 

I put my modest luggage on the bunk in the corner and leant my axe against the wall. I thought of tea. I followed the beaten path to the well, There was a frog in it , but it didn't bother me. If the water was good enough for him I would not object.........................

The only heat and way of cooking was from a wood fire which smoked terribly. Wyatt soon became an expert on wood-smoke and all the different fragrances. 

A lot of the story is about him taking in a tiny Roe Deer brought to him by some well meaning Scouts who had found it "abandoned". He manages to keep it alive and calls it Buck. Buck grows and thrives and follows him around - answering to his call.

My copy of the book has illustrations of wood engravings of the Lakes by Norman Ackroyd, which don't really add much to the book. I noticed on Amazon that the original had line drawings, which look much more relevant.

Stock Image

 

After retiring he wrote more books about The Lakes and wrote the first official guide to the national Park in 1987.

He died in 2006 and was buried in a green burial site in the Lake District  with a Yew tree planted over his grave.

A good read about a man who went back to nature before it became the in thing!

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Sue