He doesn't hold back from being blunt about the decline and endangerment of so many species, or about the reality of country life and pursuits like hunting or shooting but most of all, it is an ode to the natural world and the wonder and joy it so obviously brings to our lives, if we just take a minute to stop and look around us. I love this book, it takes you on an amazing journey through the natural year learning about all the creatures and plants that inhabit a garden and farmland through the course of one year. If I’m honest, I’m not sure I’d have chosen this book for myself, but I was given it so felt obliged to read it. A handful of full colour plates are included in small batches, including the very last one of that special one the book is dedicated to, succeeding in bringing a tear to the eye of many a reader, I think, as potentially will the closing chapter😢 coming just before the short but sweet ½ page of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I'm not comfortable with his ambivalence about huntin' and shootin', but then I don't own a large estate in Shropshire and a farm on the Welsh hills.

My Garden World is Monty Don's personal journey through the natural year, month by month, season by season, observed from the immediate world around him. I really enjoyed this book as it was a revelation into the personality of Monty as well as a wonderful account of the nature he encounters throughout the year in his garden. It deals with the course of the natural year month by month, so is broken down into bite-sized chunks, which I like.I struggled initially at the hard bare facts laid before me, virtually every creature mentioned is in dangerous decline, this I knew - but not how long we’ve known about it - from the 70’s and 80’s! Wildlife is not something that we watch happening in remote and exotic parts of the world on our screens, but right here in our own back yards and the more that we encourage it and learn to live with it, the more rewarding it becomes. I grew to enjoy his no nonsense criticism of human practices that have destroyed so much of the natural world. This is not sentimental but rooted in the lived experience of the last thirty years or so based in Herefordshire. My Garden Worldis Monty Don’s personal journey through the natural year, month by month, season by season, observed from the immediate world around him.

Monty never wrotes that he is for the hunting of any animal (and in fact often states otherwise), but simply tries to explaon that the situation of conservation is more complicated than a yes or no answer. this is a very timely and relevant celebration of the world immediately around us - at a time when we really need it. Along with his home and garden in Long Meadow, there is a farm in Wales which provide endless opportunities to observe the comings and goings of plants and wildlife as the seasons change. Yet no other creature owns the sky more than the swift and they used to grace us with their supersonic, sleek version of the still ubiquitous swallows and martins. Observations and insights of every living creature he encounters, every tree, bird, flower, wild flower, weed, insect and so much more.Already 400 pages in paperback, I suppose a possibly 1,200 page doorstopper if pictures were included might not have been possible though. This is a feel-good book, one that catapulted me away from a stressful week straight into the peace of the natural world. Divided into sections, each one headed by the main subject of the piece, I really like the style of writing that is often nostalgic.