Extremely funny but helpful with practical ideas and advice, 25 Apr 1999
As I was standing at my double patio doors with my nose pressed to the window watching the squirrels raiding my bird feeders, I became so agitated I abruptly jerked the door open to scare them off and banged myself in the mouth with my door. I decided at that moment to wage war. Although I haven't won yet, the book offers good advice on how I can get revenge without doing bodily injury to the little monsters.

Squirrels will overtake the world, 12 Apr 1999
This book is a great thing. Squirrels must be stopped now for they are evil and are planning to take over the world. Beware!

Excellent. Solid, practical advice with humor and style., 03 Mar 1999
We all love those furry little creatures but there comes a time when you must say "enough." With wit and humor, Bill Adler offers practical advice on how to keep squirrels from ruining your fun, hurting your lawn and gardens and taking food from the bird feeder. It's a must for anyone who owns a home.

Funny and Informative, 26 Feb 1999
I love both birds and squirrels. I don't mind feeding the squirrels, I just don't want them destroying my bird feeders. With the help of this book I was able to set up a bird feeding station that was safe from squirrels but also had a ground feeder just for them. It's a great book.

Funny, good, and wise... what more do you want?, 24 Nov 1998
Hey, I like and feed the little rodents myself, but they're party crashers in the bird world. Our feeder says very clearly: "Bird Station." Furry rats need not apply.

This is not merely a good read but a funny book. Mr. Adler has scored five stars from me, even before I read about Rosie O'Donnell's rave.

Extremely funny but helpful with practical ideas and advice, 25 Apr 1999
As I was standing at my double patio doors with my nose pressed to the window watching the squirrels raiding my bird feeders, I became so agitated I abruptly jerked the door open to scare them off and banged myself in the mouth with my door. I decided at that moment to wage war. Although I haven't won yet, the book offers good advice on how I can get revenge without doing bodily injury to the little monsters.

Squirrels will overtake the world, 12 Apr 1999
This book is a great thing. Squirrels must be stopped now for they are evil and are planning to take over the world. Beware!

Excellent. Solid, practical advice with humor and style., 03 Mar 1999
We all love those furry little creatures but there comes a time when you must say "enough." With wit and humor, Bill Adler offers practical advice on how to keep squirrels from ruining your fun, hurting your lawn and gardens and taking food from the bird feeder. It's a must for anyone who owns a home.

Funny and Informative, 26 Feb 1999
I love both birds and squirrels. I don't mind feeding the squirrels, I just don't want them destroying my bird feeders. With the help of this book I was able to set up a bird feeding station that was safe from squirrels but also had a ground feeder just for them. It's a great book.

Funny, good, and wise... what more do you want?, 24 Nov 1998
Hey, I like and feed the little rodents myself, but they're party crashers in the bird world. Our feeder says very clearly: "Bird Station." Furry rats need not apply.

This is not merely a good read but a funny book. Mr. Adler has scored five stars from me, even before I read about Rosie O'Donnell's rave.

Disappointing and lightweight, 18 Apr 2008
A little bit funny in places and an occasional insight but by and large poorly written and forgetable.


Feathery fun... and a little bit more., 02 Dec 2007
Like other reviewers here, I thought this book was very entertaining, hugely humerous, and very warmly written. It is not a soppy recollection of chicken tales, but an open and honest (yes, and funny - but how could a book about these fabulous birds fail to be funny?) look at how one man has had his life affected by his feathery pals.

Chapter 2 starts with the words: "The sort of chicken-keeping we were embarking on can be summed up in three words: 'twee' and 'middle class." And I read those words with recognition, not embarrassment. My two ex-Tesco hybrid waifs are currently strutting their stuff around our ill-prepared garden, and laying an average of 9 eggs a week between the two of them.

This book is for people like me. I have recently ordered 2 more copies of this for my newly chickenified friends. Why? Because of its honesty. Because of the little snippets of chicken care secrets. Because of the kindness in this book. Because it's worth its weight in eggy gold!

Laugh out loud funny -- and a few lessons to boot, 04 Sep 2007
I don't recommend reading this in bed next to a spouse who has to get up for an early commute. You could be laughing so hard, you may not be forgiven. I haven't had such a good time reading a book in I don't know how long... terrifically witty & many laugh-out-loud moments.

I agree with another reviewer who said this book can help you make up your mind about having chickens, as it gives the ups and downs and the no nonsense and the you've got to really want to do this kind of thing information woven into the humour. But I think there are quite a few good lessons to be learnd and chix health tips I'd not heard of before, so I'd recommend it also as a way to get some good chicken rearing information.

Eggcellent, 21 Apr 2006
My only criticsm of this book was that it was too short. It is an entertaining tale of keeping chickens, don't expect to learn to much from it for that I'd reccomend Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens but for those still wonderimg about weather to get chickens or not this will make your mind up.

Hen and the art of chicken maintenance, 30 May 2004
This was a really funny book, it had me laughing out loud all the way through but you would have to keep hens for it to be really relevant. A good read and I picked up a few bits of good adviceand felt I had learnt a little about chickens but not an information book.

Extremely funny but helpful with practical ideas and advice, 25 Apr 1999
As I was standing at my double patio doors with my nose pressed to the window watching the squirrels raiding my bird feeders, I became so agitated I abruptly jerked the door open to scare them off and banged myself in the mouth with my door. I decided at that moment to wage war. Although I haven't won yet, the book offers good advice on how I can get revenge without doing bodily injury to the little monsters.

Squirrels will overtake the world, 12 Apr 1999
This book is a great thing. Squirrels must be stopped now for they are evil and are planning to take over the world. Beware!

Excellent. Solid, practical advice with humor and style., 03 Mar 1999
We all love those furry little creatures but there comes a time when you must say "enough." With wit and humor, Bill Adler offers practical advice on how to keep squirrels from ruining your fun, hurting your lawn and gardens and taking food from the bird feeder. It's a must for anyone who owns a home.

Funny and Informative, 26 Feb 1999
I love both birds and squirrels. I don't mind feeding the squirrels, I just don't want them destroying my bird feeders. With the help of this book I was able to set up a bird feeding station that was safe from squirrels but also had a ground feeder just for them. It's a great book.

Funny, good, and wise... what more do you want?, 24 Nov 1998
Hey, I like and feed the little rodents myself, but they're party crashers in the bird world. Our feeder says very clearly: "Bird Station." Furry rats need not apply.

This is not merely a good read but a funny book. Mr. Adler has scored five stars from me, even before I read about Rosie O'Donnell's rave.

Disappointing and lightweight, 18 Apr 2008
A little bit funny in places and an occasional insight but by and large poorly written and forgetable.


Feathery fun... and a little bit more., 02 Dec 2007
Like other reviewers here, I thought this book was very entertaining, hugely humerous, and very warmly written. It is not a soppy recollection of chicken tales, but an open and honest (yes, and funny - but how could a book about these fabulous birds fail to be funny?) look at how one man has had his life affected by his feathery pals.

Chapter 2 starts with the words: "The sort of chicken-keeping we were embarking on can be summed up in three words: 'twee' and 'middle class." And I read those words with recognition, not embarrassment. My two ex-Tesco hybrid waifs are currently strutting their stuff around our ill-prepared garden, and laying an average of 9 eggs a week between the two of them.

This book is for people like me. I have recently ordered 2 more copies of this for my newly chickenified friends. Why? Because of its honesty. Because of the little snippets of chicken care secrets. Because of the kindness in this book. Because it's worth its weight in eggy gold!

Laugh out loud funny -- and a few lessons to boot, 04 Sep 2007
I don't recommend reading this in bed next to a spouse who has to get up for an early commute. You could be laughing so hard, you may not be forgiven. I haven't had such a good time reading a book in I don't know how long... terrifically witty & many laugh-out-loud moments.

I agree with another reviewer who said this book can help you make up your mind about having chickens, as it gives the ups and downs and the no nonsense and the you've got to really want to do this kind of thing information woven into the humour. But I think there are quite a few good lessons to be learnd and chix health tips I'd not heard of before, so I'd recommend it also as a way to get some good chicken rearing information.

Eggcellent, 21 Apr 2006
My only criticsm of this book was that it was too short. It is an entertaining tale of keeping chickens, don't expect to learn to much from it for that I'd reccomend Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens but for those still wonderimg about weather to get chickens or not this will make your mind up.

Hen and the art of chicken maintenance, 30 May 2004
This was a really funny book, it had me laughing out loud all the way through but you would have to keep hens for it to be really relevant. A good read and I picked up a few bits of good adviceand felt I had learnt a little about chickens but not an information book.

Doesn't 'do what it says on the tin', 23 Jan 2008
I really wanted to love this book. Depression is a vile, destructive thing, and also something of a mystery, and any tale of its defeat should be both inspiring and informative. Add to this the location, the East Anglian countryside, this book looked (to me) irresistible. And then there were all the fulsome comments from national newspapers on the cover...

However, in the end I was disappointed. I learnt little about depression, its causes and cures - or about the real inner life of the author. I got little sense of the horror of depression at the start, of an eventful and bumpy journey in the middle, of any interest in the psychological forces at work as we travelled, or of a real cure at the end.

Behind a veil of lyricism, the author is really rather reticent. For example, part of his healing process came via a relationship, but we are offered no insight into this at all - no doubt tactful to the lady involved, but it makes dull reading.

Of course, there are good things about this book. Mabey writes with poetry and elegance about the environment, and his love of nature shines through (`It was the kind of day that makes one feel like saying grace for a blade of grass'). Were it marketed as a series of essays on rural life, ecology etc., or just a literary diary of a year in rural East Anglia, it would be very pleasant. But it purports to be something more, and to me it does not deliver on this promise.


A marmite - Love it or hate it!!, 21 May 2007
There is no denying that Richard Mabey is a talented author and naturalist, so its no surprise that the combination of these two qualities produce a book that is both eloquent and imaginative, and will for some people be the epitome of what a thought-provoking 'nature book' should be.

However I was first introduced to Nature Cure through Mabey's column in BBC Wildlife of the same name, and found it to be not only pessimistic but also somewhat dismissive of efforts to aid the natural world. So upon embarking on the book I was prepared for much more of the same, and I wasn't disappointed.

From the word go Mabey seems intent on reminding us of what we have lost rather than what we still have and what it can do for us. Although he describes swift sightings and deer encounters with heart-warming enthusiasm, it is always followed by a lengthy account of how out of tune we have become with nature, or a depressing metaphor for mankind's fall from grace!

Even the title is somewhat misleading. I expected the theme of Nature Cure to be a description of how the power of the natural world helped Mabey overcome depression. However it begins with Mabey already recovered, with barely a glimpse back into his life before recovery. As such the book meanders its way through what can only be described as a rather uneventful 'recuperation' period. Mabey's talent for describing natural events kept me interested enough to see it through to the end but it did become a chore and left me far from inspired.

There are some people who will find the book wonderful. There are beautiful descriptions and evocative thoughts which will make the more romantic nature lover's day. But for the more practical wildlife enthusiasts (like me) who like to learn and experience, it was rather disappointing.
For me Nature Cure was not an exhilarating literary venture in the way Mabey's Flora Britannica was, but it is something a little different, and for that reason is both refreshing and worth a try.

Ignore the title, just enjoy the contents, 15 Aug 2006
You can imagine the scene. One of Britains most respected and brilliant nature writers having recovered from a bout of severe depression turns up for a meeting with his publishers with his latest work. "How are we going to market this book, Richard? What title shall we give it?" Nature Cure.
But, despite the fact that this book is up to Richards usual high standard, there's precious little on how he came back from the brink and the part that reconnecting with nature played. And this is the real disappointment. Much has been done and written in the scientific community, for example by Professor Roger Ulrich amongst others, on the effects of exposure to the natural world on patients.
But this is dry academic stuff and I was really hoping that someone with Richards power of prose could present a more cogent and lucid understanding of the role nature can play in restoring the mind.
If that publishers conference had decided that this was really a book about upping sticks from your home in the Chilterns and moving to and re-discovering the East Anglian landscape then I expect it wouldn't have been so attractive or compelling even if it was more honest.
So ignore the title, don't have too many expectations and just enjoy Richards evocative writing. I certainly did.

Courageous and thought provoking, 07 Dec 2005
I enjoyed this book immensely. The author's emotional and physical journey from one beloved and known landscape, through pain and loss, to the renewing strength of another quite different place, is expressed with courage and a disarming honesty that utterly convinces.
I learnt much from the author's thought-provoking meditations on nature and even more about what it is to be human. Thank you Richard Mabey!

Disappointing, 07 Nov 2005
The author is a repected naturalist and nature writer of long standing, so maybe I should have guessed in advance that this book would not quite offer what the title and blurb seemed (to me) to promise. I was hoping that this would be a story of the revelatory/restorative powers of discovering and/or reconnecting with nature, even if all that is meant by that is getting more in touch with the British countryside. What I read was instead a rather mundane account of one person's descent into depression and subsequent recovery, where that person just happened to have the rather agreeable job of spending all his time thinking and writing about the natural world, and reading (and citing, extensively) the works of other authors' accounts of nature in prose and in poetry.

In a nutshell, this is an introspective autobiographical fragment that can reasonably be summarised as "bloke who spends all his time thinking and writing about nature gets depressed; spends some time being depressed; eventually stops being depressed and gets back into thinking and writing about nature" -- to me, it's really not a particularly compelling tale. If it had been "urban bloke who works in factory/office and spends no time in countryside gets depressed; discovers nature; is lifted from depression by new-found love of nature; finds new meaning to life, etc" then it would be; but as it is, the caricature/precis of this book can be shortened to "bloke has a job; bloke gets depressed and can't work; bloke gets better and goes back to old job". Oh, and he moves house too.

The publicity for this book (see the Synopsis on Amazon) makes a deal of the fact that Mabey "...found the courage..." to move home from the Chilterns (where he had lived in the house of his parents from his birth right through to his middle-age) to East Anglia, where the countryside is a bit different. While reading this book, I found it hard to avoid the conclusion that Mr Mabey seems to live a somewhat other-worldly Gentleman Naturalist lifestyle of a type that I thought had fallen into extinction sometime in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Frankly, if you want to read a tale of courage, odds-overcome, and depression defeated, then there are countless much better ones than this. And if you want to read a book on the joys of nature/countryside/wilderness, there are also very many better books to choose from. So, I can't think who would benefit from being recommended this book. Maybe this would be interesting to someone who could be filled with wonder admiration and awe at the thought of a person moving their home from Chiltern countryside eastward by a couple of hundred miles to the flat fens of Norfolk and then noticing the differences; but maybe not.

Extremely funny but helpful with practical ideas and advice, 25 Apr 1999
As I was standing at my double patio doors with my nose pressed to the window watching the squirrels raiding my bird feeders, I became so agitated I abruptly jerked the door open to scare them off and banged myself in the mouth with my door. I decided at that moment to wage war. Although I haven't won yet, the book offers good advice on how I can get revenge without doing bodily injury to the little monsters.

Squirrels will overtake the world, 12 Apr 1999
This book is a great thing. Squirrels must be stopped now for they are evil and are planning to take over the world. Beware!

Excellent. Solid, practical advice with humor and style., 03 Mar 1999
We all love those furry little creatures but there comes a time when you must say "enough." With wit and humor, Bill Adler offers practical advice on how to keep squirrels from ruining your fun, hurting your lawn and gardens and taking food from the bird feeder. It's a must for anyone who owns a home.

Funny and Informative, 26 Feb 1999
I love both birds and squirrels. I don't mind feeding the squirrels, I just don't want them destroying my bird feeders. With the help of this book I was able to set up a bird feeding station that was safe from squirrels but also had a ground feeder just for them. It's a great book.

Funny, good, and wise... what more do you want?, 24 Nov 1998
Hey, I like and feed the little rodents myself, but they're party crashers in the bird world. Our feeder says very clearly: "Bird Station." Furry rats need not apply.

This is not merely a good read but a funny book. Mr. Adler has scored five stars from me, even before I read about Rosie O'Donnell's rave.

Disappointing and lightweight, 18 Apr 2008
A little bit funny in places and an occasional insight but by and large poorly written and forgetable.


Feathery fun... and a little bit more., 02 Dec 2007
Like other reviewers here, I thought this book was very entertaining, hugely humerous, and very warmly written. It is not a soppy recollection of chicken tales, but an open and honest (yes, and funny - but how could a book about these fabulous birds fail to be funny?) look at how one man has had his life affected by his feathery pals.

Chapter 2 starts with the words: "The sort of chicken-keeping we were embarking on can be summed up in three words: 'twee' and 'middle class." And I read those words with recognition, not embarrassment. My two ex-Tesco hybrid waifs are currently strutting their stuff around our ill-prepared garden, and laying an average of 9 eggs a week between the two of them.

This book is for people like me. I have recently ordered 2 more copies of this for my newly chickenified friends. Why? Because of its honesty. Because of the little snippets of chicken care secrets. Because of the kindness in this book. Because it's worth its weight in eggy gold!

Laugh out loud funny -- and a few lessons to boot, 04 Sep 2007
I don't recommend reading this in bed next to a spouse who has to get up for an early commute. You could be laughing so hard, you may not be forgiven. I haven't had such a good time reading a book in I don't know how long... terrifically witty & many laugh-out-loud moments.

I agree with another reviewer who said this book can help you make up your mind about having chickens, as it gives the ups and downs and the no nonsense and the you've got to really want to do this kind of thing information woven into the humour. But I think there are quite a few good lessons to be learnd and chix health tips I'd not heard of before, so I'd recommend it also as a way to get some good chicken rearing information.

Eggcellent, 21 Apr 2006
My only criticsm of this book was that it was too short. It is an entertaining tale of keeping chickens, don't expect to learn to much from it for that I'd reccomend Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens but for those still wonderimg about weather to get chickens or not this will make your mind up.

Hen and the art of chicken maintenance, 30 May 2004
This was a really funny book, it had me laughing out loud all the way through but you would have to keep hens for it to be really relevant. A good read and I picked up a few bits of good adviceand felt I had learnt a little about chickens but not an information book.

Doesn't 'do what it says on the tin', 23 Jan 2008
I really wanted to love this book. Depression is a vile, destructive thing, and also something of a mystery, and any tale of its defeat should be both inspiring and informative. Add to this the location, the East Anglian countryside, this book looked (to me) irresistible. And then there were all the fulsome comments from national newspapers on the cover...

However, in the end I was disappointed. I learnt little about depression, its causes and cures - or about the real inner life of the author. I got little sense of the horror of depression at the start, of an eventful and bumpy journey in the middle, of any interest in the psychological forces at work as we travelled, or of a real cure at the end.

Behind a veil of lyricism, the author is really rather reticent. For example, part of his healing process came via a relationship, but we are offered no insight into this at all - no doubt tactful to the lady involved, but it makes dull reading.

Of course, there are good things about this book. Mabey writes with poetry and elegance about the environment, and his love of nature shines through (`It was the kind of day that makes one feel like saying grace for a blade of grass'). Were it marketed as a series of essays on rural life, ecology etc., or just a literary diary of a year in rural East Anglia, it would be very pleasant. But it purports to be something more, and to me it does not deliver on this promise.


A marmite - Love it or hate it!!, 21 May 2007
There is no denying that Richard Mabey is a talented author and naturalist, so its no surprise that the combination of these two qualities produce a book that is both eloquent and imaginative, and will for some people be the epitome of what a thought-provoking 'nature book' should be.

However I was first introduced to Nature Cure through Mabey's column in BBC Wildlife of the same name, and found it to be not only pessimistic but also somewhat dismissive of efforts to aid the natural world. So upon embarking on the book I was prepared for much more of the same, and I wasn't disappointed.

From the word go Mabey seems intent on reminding us of what we have lost rather than what we still have and what it can do for us. Although he describes swift sightings and deer encounters with heart-warming enthusiasm, it is always followed by a lengthy account of how out of tune we have become with nature, or a depressing metaphor for mankind's fall from grace!

Even the title is somewhat misleading. I expected the theme of Nature Cure to be a description of how the power of the natural world helped Mabey overcome depression. However it begins with Mabey already recovered, with barely a glimpse back into his life before recovery. As such the book meanders its way through what can only be described as a rather uneventful 'recuperation' period. Mabey's talent for describing natural events kept me interested enough to see it through to the end but it did become a chore and left me far from inspired.

There are some people who will find the book wonderful. There are beautiful descriptions and evocative thoughts which will make the more romantic nature lover's day. But for the more practical wildlife enthusiasts (like me) who like to learn and experience, it was rather disappointing.
For me Nature Cure was not an exhilarating literary venture in the way Mabey's Flora Britannica was, but it is something a little different, and for that reason is both refreshing and worth a try.

Ignore the title, just enjoy the contents, 15 Aug 2006
You can imagine the scene. One of Britains most respected and brilliant nature writers having recovered from a bout of severe depression turns up for a meeting with his publishers with his latest work. "How are we going to market this book, Richard? What title shall we give it?" Nature Cure.
But, despite the fact that this book is up to Richards usual high standard, there's precious little on how he came back from the brink and the part that reconnecting with nature played. And this is the real disappointment. Much has been done and written in the scientific community, for example by Professor Roger Ulrich amongst others, on the effects of exposure to the natural world on patients.
But this is dry academic stuff and I was really hoping that someone with Richards power of prose could present a more cogent and lucid understanding of the role nature can play in restoring the mind.
If that publishers conference had decided that this was really a book about upping sticks from your home in the Chilterns and moving to and re-discovering the East Anglian landscape then I expect it wouldn't have been so attractive or compelling even if it was more honest.
So ignore the title, don't have too many expectations and just enjoy Richards evocative writing. I certainly did.

Courageous and thought provoking, 07 Dec 2005
I enjoyed this book immensely. The author's emotional and physical journey from one beloved and known landscape, through pain and loss, to the renewing strength of another quite different place, is expressed with courage and a disarming honesty that utterly convinces.
I learnt much from the author's thought-provoking meditations on nature and even more about what it is to be human. Thank you Richard Mabey!

Disappointing, 07 Nov 2005
The author is a repected naturalist and nature writer of long standing, so maybe I should have guessed in advance that this book would not quite offer what the title and blurb seemed (to me) to promise. I was hoping that this would be a story of the revelatory/restorative powers of discovering and/or reconnecting with nature, even if all that is meant by that is getting more in touch with the British countryside. What I read was instead a rather mundane account of one person's descent into depression and subsequent recovery, where that person just happened to have the rather agreeable job of spending all his time thinking and writing about the natural world, and reading (and citing, extensively) the works of other authors' accounts of nature in prose and in poetry.

In a nutshell, this is an introspective autobiographical fragment that can reasonably be summarised as "bloke who spends all his time thinking and writing about nature gets depressed; spends some time being depressed; eventually stops being depressed and gets back into thinking and writing about nature" -- to me, it's really not a particularly compelling tale. If it had been "urban bloke who works in factory/office and spends no time in countryside gets depressed; discovers nature; is lifted from depression by new-found love of nature; finds new meaning to life, etc" then it would be; but as it is, the caricature/precis of this book can be shortened to "bloke has a job; bloke gets depressed and can't work; bloke gets better and goes back to old job". Oh, and he moves house too.

The publicity for this book (see the Synopsis on Amazon) makes a deal of the fact that Mabey "...found the courage..." to move home from the Chilterns (where he had lived in the house of his parents from his birth right through to his middle-age) to East Anglia, where the countryside is a bit different. While reading this book, I found it hard to avoid the conclusion that Mr Mabey seems to live a somewhat other-worldly Gentleman Naturalist lifestyle of a type that I thought had fallen into extinction sometime in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Frankly, if you want to read a tale of courage, odds-overcome, and depression defeated, then there are countless much better ones than this. And if you want to read a book on the joys of nature/countryside/wilderness, there are also very many better books to choose from. So, I can't think who would benefit from being recommended this book. Maybe this would be interesting to someone who could be filled with wonder admiration and awe at the thought of a person moving their home from Chiltern countryside eastward by a couple of hundred miles to the flat fens of Norfolk and then noticing the differences; but maybe not.

Excellent guide, but check before travelling, 11 Jul 2006
This is a great way to plan hoildays if you don't want to leave your dog behind! It's just a shame that in some areas there are almost no dog-friendly placed (e.g. Surrey - we had to stay in a 5-star hotel as there was no other option in the local area - what a shame :)

Good descriptions of all entries; unfortunately this particular book is now a bit out of date, so best phone up to check before travelling - can't wait for the 2006/7 guide to come out!

Extremely funny but helpful with practical ideas and advice, 25 Apr 1999
As I was standing at my double patio doors with my nose pressed to the window watching the squirrels raiding my bird feeders, I became so agitated I abruptly jerked the door open to scare them off and banged myself in the mouth with my door. I decided at that moment to wage war. Although I haven't won yet, the book offers good advice on how I can get revenge without doing bodily injury to the little monsters.

Squirrels will overtake the world, 12 Apr 1999
This book is a great thing. Squirrels must be stopped now for they are evil and are planning to take over the world. Beware!

Excellent. Solid, practical advice with humor and style., 03 Mar 1999
We all love those furry little creatures but there comes a time when you must say "enough." With wit and humor, Bill Adler offers practical advice on how to keep squirrels from ruining your fun, hurting your lawn and gardens and taking food from the bird feeder. It's a must for anyone who owns a home.

Funny and Informative, 26 Feb 1999
I love both birds and squirrels. I don't mind feeding the squirrels, I just don't want them destroying my bird feeders. With the help of this book I was able to set up a bird feeding station that was safe from squirrels but also had a ground feeder just for them. It's a great book.

Funny, good, and wise... what more do you want?, 24 Nov 1998
Hey, I like and feed the little rodents myself, but they're party crashers in the bird world. Our feeder says very clearly: "Bird Station." Furry rats need not apply.

This is not merely a good read but a funny book. Mr. Adler has scored five stars from me, even before I read about Rosie O'Donnell's rave.

Disappointing and lightweight, 18 Apr 2008
A little bit funny in places and an occasional insight but by and large poorly written and forgetable.


Feathery fun... and a little bit more., 02 Dec 2007
Like other reviewers here, I thought this book was very entertaining, hugely humerous, and very warmly written. It is not a soppy recollection of chicken tales, but an open and honest (yes, and funny - but how could a book about these fabulous birds fail to be funny?) look at how one man has had his life affected by his feathery pals.

Chapter 2 starts with the words: "The sort of chicken-keeping we were embarking on can be summed up in three words: 'twee' and 'middle class." And I read those words with recognition, not embarrassment. My two ex-Tesco hybrid waifs are currently strutting their stuff around our ill-prepared garden, and laying an average of 9 eggs a week between the two of them.

This book is for people like me. I have recently ordered 2 more copies of this for my newly chickenified friends. Why? Because of its honesty. Because of the little snippets of chicken care secrets. Because of the kindness in this book. Because it's worth its weight in eggy gold!

Laugh out loud funny -- and a few lessons to boot, 04 Sep 2007
I don't recommend reading this in bed next to a spouse who has to get up for an early commute. You could be laughing so hard, you may not be forgiven. I haven't had such a good time reading a book in I don't know how long... terrifically witty & many laugh-out-loud moments.

I agree with another reviewer who said this book can help you make up your mind about having chickens, as it gives the ups and downs and the no nonsense and the you've got to really want to do this kind of thing information woven into the humour. But I think there are quite a few good lessons to be learnd and chix health tips I'd not heard of before, so I'd recommend it also as a way to get some good chicken rearing information.

Eggcellent, 21 Apr 2006
My only criticsm of this book was that it was too short. It is an entertaining tale of keeping chickens, don't expect to learn to much from it for that I'd reccomend Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens but for those still wonderimg about weather to get chickens or not this will make your mind up.

Hen and the art of chicken maintenance, 30 May 2004
This was a really funny book, it had me laughing out loud all the way through but you would have to keep hens for it to be really relevant. A good read and I picked up a few bits of good adviceand felt I had learnt a little about chickens but not an information book.

Doesn't 'do what it says on the tin', 23 Jan 2008
I really wanted to love this book. Depression is a vile, destructive thing, and also something of a mystery, and any tale of its defeat should be both inspiring and informative. Add to this the location, the East Anglian countryside, this book looked (to me) irresistible. And then there were all the fulsome comments from national newspapers on the cover...

However, in the end I was disappointed. I learnt little about depression, its causes and cures - or about the real inner life of the author. I got little sense of the horror of depression at the start, of an eventful and bumpy journey in the middle, of any interest in the psychological forces at work as we travelled, or of a real cure at the end.

Behind a veil of lyricism, the author is really rather reticent. For example, part of his healing process came via a relationship, but we are offered no insight into this at all - no doubt tactful to the lady involved, but it makes dull reading.

Of course, there are good things about this book. Mabey writes with poetry and elegance about the environment, and his love of nature shines through (`It was the kind of day that makes one feel like saying grace for a blade of grass'). Were it marketed as a series of essays on rural life, ecology etc., or just a literary diary of a year in rural East Anglia, it would be very pleasant. But it purports to be something more, and to me it does not deliver on this promise.


A marmite - Love it or hate it!!, 21 May 2007
There is no denying that Richard Mabey is a talented author and naturalist, so its no surprise that the combination of these two qualities produce a book that is both eloquent and imaginative, and will for some people be the epitome of what a thought-provoking 'nature book' should be.

However I was first introduced to Nature Cure through Mabey's column in BBC Wildlife of the same name, and found it to be not only pessimistic but also somewhat dismissive of efforts to aid the natural world. So upon embarking on the book I was prepared for much more of the same, and I wasn't disappointed.

From the word go Mabey seems intent on reminding us of what we have lost rather than what we still have and what it can do for us. Although he describes swift sightings and deer encounters with heart-warming enthusiasm, it is always followed by a lengthy account of how out of tune we have become with nature, or a depressing metaphor for mankind's fall from grace!

Even the title is somewhat misleading. I expected the theme of Nature Cure to be a description of how the power of the natural world helped Mabey overcome depression. However it begins with Mabey already recovered, with barely a glimpse back into his life before recovery. As such the book meanders its way through what can only be described as a rather uneventful 'recuperation' period. Mabey's talent for describing natural events kept me interested enough to see it through to the end but it did become a chore and left me far from inspired.

There are some people who will find the book wonderful. There are beautiful descriptions and evocative thoughts which will make the more romantic nature lover's day. But for the more practical wildlife enthusiasts (like me) who like to learn and experience, it was rather disappointing.
For me Nature Cure was not an exhilarating literary venture in the way Mabey's Flora Britannica was, but it is something a little different, and for that reason is both refreshing and worth a try.

Ignore the title, just enjoy the contents, 15 Aug 2006
You can imagine the scene. One of Britains most respected and brilliant nature writers having recovered from a bout of severe depression turns up for a meeting with his publishers with his latest work. "How are we going to market this book, Richard? What title shall we give it?" Nature Cure.
But, despite the fact that this book is up to Richards usual high standard, there's precious little on how he came back from the brink and the part that reconnecting with nature played. And this is the real disappointment. Much has been done and written in the scientific community, for example by Professor Roger Ulrich amongst others, on the effects of exposure to the natural world on patients.
But this is dry academic stuff and I was really hoping that someone with Richards power of prose could present a more cogent and lucid understanding of the role nature can play in restoring the mind.
If that publishers conference had decided that this was really a book about upping sticks from your home in the Chilterns and moving to and re-discovering the East Anglian landscape then I expect it wouldn't have been so attractive or compelling even if it was more honest.
So ignore the title, don't have too many expectations and just enjoy Richards evocative writing. I certainly did.

Courageous and thought provoking, 07 Dec 2005
I enjoyed this book immensely. The author's emotional and physical journey from one beloved and known landscape, through pain and loss, to the renewing strength of another quite different place, is expressed with courage and a disarming honesty that utterly convinces.
I learnt much from the author's thought-provoking meditations on nature and even more about what it is to be human. Thank you Richard Mabey!

Disappointing, 07 Nov 2005
The author is a repected naturalist and nature writer of long standing, so maybe I should have guessed in advance that this book would not quite offer what the title and blurb seemed (to me) to promise. I was hoping that this would be a story of the revelatory/restorative powers of discovering and/or reconnecting with nature, even if all that is meant by that is getting more in touch with the British countryside. What I read was instead a rather mundane account of one person's descent into depression and subsequent recovery, where that person just happened to have the rather agreeable job of spending all his time thinking and writing about the natural world, and reading (and citing, extensively) the works of other authors' accounts of nature in prose and in poetry.

In a nutshell, this is an introspective autobiographical fragment that can reasonably be summarised as "bloke who spends all his time thinking and writing about nature gets depressed; spends some time being depressed; eventually stops being depressed and gets back into thinking and writing about nature" -- to me, it's really not a particularly compelling tale. If it had been "urban bloke who works in factory/office and spends no time in countryside gets depressed; discovers nature; is lifted from depression by new-found love of nature; finds new meaning to life, etc" then it would be; but as it is, the caricature/precis of this book can be shortened to "bloke has a job; bloke gets depressed and can't work; bloke gets better and goes back to old job". Oh, and he moves house too.

The publicity for this book (see the Synopsis on Amazon) makes a deal of the fact that Mabey "...found the courage..." to move home from the Chilterns (where he had lived in the house of his parents from his birth right through to his middle-age) to East Anglia, where the countryside is a bit different. While reading this book, I found it hard to avoid the conclusion that Mr Mabey seems to live a somewhat other-worldly Gentleman Naturalist lifestyle of a type that I thought had fallen into extinction sometime in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Frankly, if you want to read a tale of courage, odds-overcome, and depression defeated, then there are countless much better ones than this. And if you want to read a book on the joys of nature/countryside/wilderness, there are also very many better books to choose from. So, I can't think who would benefit from being recommended this book. Maybe this would be interesting to someone who could be filled with wonder admiration and awe at the thought of a person moving their home from Chiltern countryside eastward by a couple of hundred miles to the flat fens of Norfolk and then noticing the differences; but maybe not.

Excellent guide, but check before travelling, 11 Jul 2006
This is a great way to plan hoildays if you don't want to leave your dog behind! It's just a shame that in some areas there are almost no dog-friendly placed (e.g. Surrey - we had to stay in a 5-star hotel as there was no other option in the local area - what a shame :)

Good descriptions of all entries; unfortunately this particular book is now a bit out of date, so best phone up to check before travelling - can't wait for the 2006/7 guide to come out!

Hilarious, 22 Dec 2005
Wonderful, just wonderful.

For any livestock farmer the humour will ring true.

When I first read this book I had to stop after 15 pages with tears of laughter running down my cheeks.

Some humour will be incomprehensible for the non-farmer. But funny nonetheless.

Extremely funny but helpful with practical ideas and advice, 25 Apr 1999
As I was standing at my double patio doors with my nose pressed to the window watching the squirrels raiding my bird feeders, I became so agitated I abruptly jerked the door open to scare them off and banged myself in the mouth with my door. I decided at that moment to wage war. Although I haven't won yet, the book offers good advice on how I can get revenge without doing bodily injury to the little monsters.

Squirrels will overtake the world, 12 Apr 1999
This book is a great thing. Squirrels must be stopped now for they are evil and are planning to take over the world. Beware!

Excellent. Solid, practical advice with humor and style., 03 Mar 1999
We all love those furry little creatures but there comes a time when you must say "enough." With wit and humor, Bill Adler offers practical advice on how to keep squirrels from ruining your fun, hurting your lawn and gardens and taking food from the bird feeder. It's a must for anyone who owns a home.

Funny and Informative, 26 Feb 1999
I love both birds and squirrels. I don't mind feeding the squirrels, I just don't want them destroying my bird feeders. With the help of this book I was able to set up a bird feeding station that was safe from squirrels but also had a ground feeder just for them. It's a great book.

Funny, good, and wise... what more do you want?, 24 Nov 1998
Hey, I like and feed the little rodents myself, but they're party crashers in the bird world. Our feeder says very clearly: "Bird Station." Furry rats need not apply.

This is not merely a good read but a funny book. Mr. Adler has scored five stars from me, even before I read about Rosie O'Donnell's rave.

Disappointing and lightweight, 18 Apr 2008
A little bit funny in places and an occasional insight but by and large poorly written and forgetable.


Feathery fun... and a little bit more., 02 Dec 2007
Like other reviewers here, I thought this book was very entertaining, hugely humerous, and very warmly written. It is not a soppy recollection of chicken tales, but an open and honest (yes, and funny - but how could a book about these fabulous birds fail to be funny?) look at how one man has had his life affected by his feathery pals.

Chapter 2 starts with the words: "The sort of chicken-keeping we were embarking on can be summed up in three words: 'twee' and 'middle class." And I read those words with recognition, not embarrassment. My two ex-Tesco hybrid waifs are currently strutting their stuff around our ill-prepared garden, and laying an average of 9 eggs a week between the two of them.

This book is for people like me. I have recently ordered 2 more copies of this for my newly chickenified friends. Why? Because of its honesty. Because of the little snippets of chicken care secrets. Because of the kindness in this book. Because it's worth its weight in eggy gold!

Laugh out loud funny -- and a few lessons to boot, 04 Sep 2007
I don't recommend reading this in bed next to a spouse who has to get up for an early commute. You could be laughing so hard, you may not be forgiven. I haven't had such a good time reading a book in I don't know how long... terrifically witty & many laugh-out-loud moments.

I agree with another reviewer who said this book can help you make up your mind about having chickens, as it gives the ups and downs and the no nonsense and the you've got to really want to do this kind of thing information woven into the humour. But I think there are quite a few good lessons to be learnd and chix health tips I'd not heard of before, so I'd recommend it also as a way to get some good chicken rearing information.

Eggcellent, 21 Apr 2006
My only criticsm of this book was that it was too short. It is an entertaining tale of keeping chickens, don't expect to learn to much from it for that I'd reccomend Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens but for those still wonderimg about weather to get chickens or not this will make your mind up.

Hen and the art of chicken maintenance, 30 May 2004
This was a really funny book, it had me laughing out loud all the way through but you would have to keep hens for it to be really relevant. A good read and I picked up a few bits of good adviceand felt I had learnt a little about chickens but not an information book.

Doesn't 'do what it says on the tin', 23 Jan 2008
I really wanted to love this book. Depression is a vile, destructive thing, and also something of a mystery, and any tale of its defeat should be both inspiring and informative. Add to this the location, the East Anglian countryside, this book looked (to me) irresistible. And then there were all the fulsome comments from national newspapers on the cover...

However, in the end I was disappointed. I learnt little about depression, its causes and cures - or about the real inner life of the author. I got little sense of the horror of depression at the start, of an eventful and bumpy journey in the middle, of any interest in the psychological forces at work as we travelled, or of a real cure at the end.

Behind a veil of lyricism, the author is really rather reticent. For example, part of his healing process came via a relationship, but we are offered no insight into this at all - no doubt tactful to the lady involved, but it makes dull reading.

Of course, there are good things about this book. Mabey writes with poetry and elegance about the environment, and his love of nature shines through (`It was the kind of day that makes one feel like saying grace for a blade of grass'). Were it marketed as a series of essays on rural life, ecology etc., or just a literary diary of a year in rural East Anglia, it would be very pleasant. But it purports to be something more, and to me it does not deliver on this promise.


A marmite - Love it or hate it!!, 21 May 2007
There is no denying that Richard Mabey is a talented author and naturalist, so its no surprise that the combination of these two qualities produce a book that is both eloquent and imaginative, and will for some people be the epitome of what a thought-provoking 'nature book' should be.

However I was first introduced to Nature Cure through Mabey's column in BBC Wildlife of the same name, and found it to be not only pessimistic but also somewhat dismissive of efforts to aid the natural world. So upon embarking on the book I was prepared for much more of the same, and I wasn't disappointed.

From the word go Mabey seems intent on reminding us of what we have lost rather than what we still have and what it can do for us. Although he describes swift sightings and deer encounters with heart-warming enthusiasm, it is always followed by a lengthy account of how out of tune we have become with nature, or a depressing metaphor for mankind's fall from grace!

Even the title is somewhat misleading. I expected the theme of Nature Cure to be a description of how the power of the natural world helped Mabey overcome depression. However it begins with Mabey already recovered, with barely a glimpse back into his life before recovery. As such the book meanders its way through what can only be described as a rather uneventful 'recuperation' period. Mabey's talent for describing natural events kept me interested enough to see it through to the end but it did become a chore and left me far from inspired.

There are some people who will find the book wonderful. There are beautiful descriptions and evocative thoughts which will make the more romantic nature lover's day. But for the more practical wildlife enthusiasts (like me) who like to learn and experience, it was rather disappointing.
For me Nature Cure was not an exhilarating literary venture in the way Mabey's Flora Britannica was, but it is something a little different, and for that reason is both refreshing and worth a try.

Ignore the title, just enjoy the contents, 15 Aug 2006
You can imagine the scene. One of Britains most respected and brilliant nature writers having recovered from a bout of severe depression turns up for a meeting with his publishers with his latest work. "How are we going to market this book, Richard? What title shall we give it?" Nature Cure.
But, despite the fact that this book is up to Richards usual high standard, there's precious little on how he came back from the brink and the part that reconnecting with nature played. And this is the real disappointment. Much has been done and written in the scientific community, for example by Professor Roger Ulrich amongst others, on the effects of exposure to the natural world on patients.
But this is dry academic stuff and I was really hoping that someone with Richards power of prose could present a more cogent and lucid understanding of the role nature can play in restoring the mind.
If that publishers conference had decided that this was really a book about upping sticks from your home in the Chilterns and moving to and re-discovering the East Anglian landscape then I expect it wouldn't have been so attractive or compelling even if it was more honest.
So ignore the title, don't have too many expectations and just enjoy Richards evocative writing. I certainly did.

Courageous and thought provoking, 07 Dec 2005
I enjoyed this book immensely. The author's emotional and physical journey from one beloved and known landscape, through pain and loss, to the renewing strength of another quite different place, is expressed with courage and a disarming honesty that utterly convinces.
I learnt much from the author's thought-provoking meditations on nature and even more about what it is to be human. Thank you Richard Mabey!

Disappointing, 07 Nov 2005
The author is a repected naturalist and nature writer of long standing, so maybe I should have guessed in advance that this book would not quite offer what the title and blurb seemed (to me) to promise. I was hoping that this would be a story of the revelatory/restorative powers of discovering and/or reconnecting with nature, even if all that is meant by that is getting more in touch with the British countryside. What I read was instead a rather mundane account of one person's descent into depression and subsequent recovery, where that person just happened to have the rather agreeable job of spending all his time thinking and writing about the natural world, and reading (and citing, extensively) the works of other authors' accounts of nature in prose and in poetry.

In a nutshell, this is an introspective autobiographical fragment that can reasonably be summarised as "bloke who spends all his time thinking and writing about nature gets depressed; spends some time being depressed; eventually stops being depressed and gets back into thinking and writing about nature" -- to me, it's really not a particularly compelling tale. If it had been "urban bloke who works in factory/office and spends no time in countryside gets depressed; discovers nature; is lifted from depression by new-found love of nature; finds new meaning to life, etc" then it would be; but as it is, the caricature/precis of this book can be shortened to "bloke has a job; bloke gets depressed and can't work; bloke gets better and goes back to old job". Oh, and he moves house too.

The publicity for this book (see the Synopsis on Amazon) makes a deal of the fact that Mabey "...found the courage..." to move home from the Chilterns (where he had lived in the house of his parents from his birth right through to his middle-age) to East Anglia, where the countryside is a bit different. While reading this book, I found it hard to avoid the conclusion that Mr Mabey seems to live a somewhat other-worldly Gentleman Naturalist lifestyle of a type that I thought had fallen into extinction sometime in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Frankly, if you want to read a tale of courage, odds-overcome, and depression defeated, then there are countless much better ones than this. And if you want to read a book on the joys of nature/countryside/wilderness, there are also very many better books to choose from. So, I can't think who would benefit from being recommended this book. Maybe this would be interesting to someone who could be filled with wonder admiration and awe at the thought of a person moving their home from Chiltern countryside eastward by a couple of hundred miles to the flat fens of Norfolk and then noticing the differences; but maybe not.

Excellent guide, but check before travelling, 11 Jul 2006
This is a great way to plan hoildays if you don't want to leave your dog behind! It's just a shame that in some areas there are almost no dog-friendly placed (e.g. Surrey - we had to stay in a 5-star hotel as there was no other option in the local area - what a shame :)

Good descriptions of all entries; unfortunately this particular book is now a bit out of date, so best phone up to check before travelling - can't wait for the 2006/7 guide to come out!

Hilarious, 22 Dec 2005
Wonderful, just wonderful.

For any livestock farmer the humour will ring true.

When I first read this book I had to stop after 15 pages with tears of laughter running down my cheeks.

Some humour will be incomprehensible for the non-farmer. But funny nonetheless.

We are not amused, 02 Dec 2008
I found this completely unfunny, and I too have made the move and found it initially difficult, as per the author - although clearly without the pots of money. She is patronising, stereotyping and totally whingeing. In every chapter I just felt like yelling at her 'if you don't like it here go home!'. She is bordering on insulting to the poor souls she has thrust her prejudices upon in East Anglia. There is nothing new, clever, witty or insightful in what she writes. She picks on well worn themes and flogs a dead horse in an over exaggerated way to try to make it funny. 'Wife in the North' knocks spots off this book.

Best Laughs Ive Had All Year So Far, 18 Aug 2008
My husband and I are planning to move to the country next year, so when I saw this book I couldnt beleive what it was trying to tell me.I had to read it. It was the most funniest book I'd easily read all year! I even had my husband rolling in bed laughing with me. Judy Rumbold attacked every single one of our reasons for moving to the country with vivid clarity, I especially loved what she wrote about country pubs, thatched roofs and garden machinary. but secretly i think it's all a ruse because she's still living there!
Fanatastic read - not for the faint hearted or easily persuaded
Putting all that aside if you still want to move to the country after reading this book, I say go for it! It's more than convinced my husband and I!

If you read this, then read this, 25 May 2008
There's an entire genre of 'moving to the countryside' books, what publisher's like to call settlement non-fiction. The books are normally written to commission, it's a genre I had never explored or read before I wrote my own book, which I suppose I have to now admit, belongs in some way to this genre.

This is clearly one, and I haven't read it. So I who I am I to argue with the reviewers, hence the 5 stars.

But if you do read this book, then try A PLACE IN MY COUNTRY: In Search of a Rural Dream.

I'm biased, because I wrote it. Well and widely reviewed, is sinking like a stone, there you go.

Perhaps the best is The Engima of Arrival by V.S Naipaul, luckily a book I only read after I had finished mine. I think I could have called mine The Enigma or Arrival and been tougher about resisting my publisher's insistence on a subtitle, which all these books seem to have.

Home is where the Aga and dog live !, 12 Mar 2007
Funny, heart warming and so, so down to earth.

I can really say that this book is a sure fire winner for anyone wondering about moving to the country, it really is a warts and all sort of book.

Aga's really are the best bit though, really are dual purpose (airing clothes, cooking and keeping the dog warm. (Be prepared though for falling over said dog when trying to get food out of oven). As the kitchen is normally the warmest part of the house, dogs know what is best,(cracks and holes in beams, uneven draughty floorboards) in most other rooms apart from kitchen. And no these don't get filled in and repaired as this then
doesn't give us country folk something to moan about (cost of LPG excessive) surely if this expense was written about all those townies would be heading back home, as it can be as costly as having a mortgage. But as Judy writes everyone has to put their behind on it, so cost per behind well, not a lot, and farmhouse kitchens are the hub of the home.

Yes, you also have to have a dog, one that manages to get as much cow/horse muck on its fur as at all possible, and slobber all over your nicely cleaned white kitchen appliances, and visitors (you will never notice the slobber marks when nobody is visiting but when someone calls round they will be there in full view, almost with a neon sign glaring look slobber, slobber marks! and not just on the appliances either.

Found it really enjoyable as a book you an read a chapter at a time, so easy to fit in without feeling guilty about not doing other jobs.

I am now passing it on to my husband, as think he will enjoy it, especially the chapter about commuting....(next time you are on the train commuting you will look and see certain people as mentioned in the book).

I think that I found it more enjoyable as I made the move from town to country nine years ago, and it is so truthful, down to earth and really is what living in the country is like. You either love it or hate it, either that or go and have a big bonfire ..... great for stress relief, so my husband says.

By the way could somebody please tell that dammed owl to stop bumping into the roof in the middle of the night, and the starlings to stop building nests in the eaves. Keep being woken up at all hours of day and night.

Brilliant present for anyone thinking of moving to the country, you will be tempted to read it yourself though.

Doesn't say anything about mice or rats though, and they seem to think that they own the loft sometimes, I wonder if they have squatters rights?

the funniest book about the countryside since Cold Comfort Farm, 07 Feb 2007
Like Judy Rumbold, I am struggling with my husband's mid-life crisis, which has taken the form of wanting a house in the country. A friend gave me this book, and I spent the whole of Christmas reading extracts out aloud to him, while the newly-acquired wreck did everything she described. Quaint beams on which to brain yourself? Check. Malfunctioning Aga that collapses on Xmas day? Check. Children who do not want to go out on bracing walks round garden the size of a small European principality, but who spend the whole time watching TV or asking when they can return to London? Check.
Actually, while this is the funniest book about the delusions city folk have about country life, I think Rumbold wasn't exactly lucky in her choice of location. So far the natives are incredibly friendly (that's the West Country, rather than beastly East Anglia for you) and while not sharing her craving for boutiques in the middle of corn fields, there are even a surprising number of interesting small shops. Just read it before you think of living there permanently, and forget about raising chickens.

Extremely funny but helpful with practical ideas and advice, 25 Apr 1999
As I was standing at my double patio doors with my nose pressed to the window watching the squirrels raiding my bird feeders, I became so agitated I abruptly jerked the door open to scare them off and banged myself in the mouth with my door. I decided at that moment to wage war. Although I haven't won yet, the book offers good advice on how I can get revenge without doing bodily injury to the little monsters.

Squirrels will overtake the world, 12 Apr 1999
This book is a great thing. Squirrels must be stopped now for they are evil and are planning to take over the world. Beware!

Excellent. Solid, practical advice with humor and style., 03 Mar 1999
We all love those furry little creatures but there comes a time when you must say "enough." With wit and humor, Bill Adler offers practical advice on how to keep squirrels from ruining your fun, hurting your lawn and gardens and taking food from the bird feeder. It's a must for anyone who owns a home.

Funny and Informative, 26 Feb 1999
I love both birds and squirrels. I don't mind feeding the squirrels, I just don't want them destroying my bird feeders. With the help of this book I was able to set up a bird feeding station that was safe from squirrels but also had a ground feeder just for them. It's a great book.

Funny, good, and wise... what more do you want?, 24 Nov 1998
Hey, I like and feed the little rodents myself, but they're party crashers in the bird world. Our feeder says very clearly: "Bird Station." Furry rats need not apply.

This is not merely a good read but a funny book. Mr. Adler has scored five stars from me, even before I read about Rosie O'Donnell's rave.

Disappointing and lightweight, 18 Apr 2008
A little bit funny in places and an occasional insight but by and large poorly written and forgetable.


Feathery fun... and a little bit more., 02 Dec 2007
Like other reviewers here, I thought this book was very entertaining, hugely humerous, and very warmly written. It is not a soppy recollection of chicken tales, but an open and honest (yes, and funny - but how could a book about these fabulous birds fail to be funny?) look at how one man has had his life affected by his feathery pals.

Chapter 2 starts with the words: "The sort of chicken-keeping we were embarking on can be summed up in three words: 'twee' and 'middle class." And I read those words with recognition, not embarrassment. My two ex-Tesco hybrid waifs are currently strutting their stuff around our ill-prepared garden, and laying an average of 9 eggs a week between the two of them.

This book is for people like me. I have recently ordered 2 more copies of this for my newly chickenified friends. Why? Because of its honesty. Because of the little snippets of chicken care secrets. Because of the kindness in this book. Because it's worth its weight in eggy gold!

Laugh out loud funny -- and a few lessons to boot, 04 Sep 2007
I don't recommend reading this in bed next to a spouse who has to get up for an early commute. You could be laughing so hard, you may not be forgiven. I haven't had such a good time reading a book in I don't know how long... terrifically witty & many laugh-out-loud moments.

I agree with another reviewer who said this book can help you make up your mind about having chickens, as it gives the ups and downs and the no nonsense and the you've got to really want to do this kind of thing information woven into the humour. But I think there are quite a few good lessons to be learnd and chix health tips I'd not heard of before, so I'd recommend it also as a way to get some good chicken rearing information.

Eggcellent, 21 Apr 2006
My only criticsm of this book was that it was too short. It is an entertaining tale of keeping chickens, don't expect to learn to much from it for that I'd reccomend Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens but for those still wonderimg about weather to get chickens or not this will make your mind up.

Hen and the art of chicken maintenance, 30 May 2004
This was a really funny book, it had me laughing out loud all the way through but you would have to keep hens for it to be really relevant. A good read and I picked up a few bits of good adviceand felt I had learnt a little about chickens but not an information book.

Doesn't 'do what it says on the tin', 23 Jan 2008
I really wanted to love this book. Depression is a vile, destructive thing, and also something of a mystery, and any tale of its defeat should be both inspiring and informative. Add to this the location, the East Anglian countryside, this book looked (to me) irresistible. And then there were all the fulsome comments from national newspapers on the cover...

However, in the end I was disappointed. I learnt little about depression, its causes and cures - or about the real inner life of the author. I got little sense of the horror of depression at the start, of an eventful and bumpy journey in the middle, of any interest in the psychological forces at work as we travelled, or of a real cure at the end.

Behind a veil of lyricism, the author is really rather reticent. For example, part of his healing process came via a relationship, but we are offered no insight into this at all - no doubt tactful to the lady involved, but it makes dull reading.

Of course, there are good things about this book. Mabey writes with poetry and elegance about the environment, and his love of nature shines through (`It was the kind of day that makes one feel like saying grace for a blade of grass'). Were it marketed as a series of essays on rural life, ecology etc., or just a literary diary of a year in rural East Anglia, it would be very pleasant. But it purports to be something more, and to me it does not deliver on this promise.


A marmite - Love it or hate it!!, 21 May 2007
There is no denying that Richard Mabey is a talented author and naturalist, so its no surprise that the combination of these two qualities produce a book that is both eloquent and imaginative, and will for some people be the epitome of what a thought-provoking 'nature book' should be.

However I was first introduced to Nature Cure through Mabey's column in BBC Wildlife of the same name, and found it to be not only pessimistic but also somewhat dismissive of efforts to aid the natural world. So upon embarking on the book I was prepared for much more of the same, and I wasn't disappointed.

From the word go Mabey seems intent on reminding us of what we have lost rather than what we still have and what it can do for us. Although he describes swift sightings and deer encounters with heart-warming enthusiasm, it is always followed by a lengthy account of how out of tune we have become with nature, or a depressing metaphor for mankind's fall from grace!

Even the title is somewhat misleading. I expected the theme of Nature Cure to be a description of how the power of the natural world helped Mabey overcome depression. However it begins with Mabey already recovered, with barely a glimpse back into his life before recovery. As such the book meanders its way through what can only be described as a rather uneventful 'recuperation' period. Mabey's talent for describing natural events kept me interested enough to see it through to the end but it did become a chore and left me far from inspired.

There are some people who will find the book wonderful. There are beautiful descriptions and evocative thoughts which will make the more romantic nature lover's day. But for the more practical wildlife enthusiasts (like me) who like to learn and experience, it was rather disappointing.
For me Nature Cure was not an exhilarating literary venture in the way Mabey's Flora Britannica was, but it is something a little different, and for that reason is both refreshing and worth a try.

Ignore the title, just enjoy the contents, 15 Aug 2006
You can imagine the scene. One of Britains most respected and brilliant nature writers having recovered from a bout of severe depression turns up for a meeting with his publishers with his latest work. "How are we going to market this book, Richard? What title shall we give it?" Nature Cure.
But, despite the fact that this book is up to Richards usual high standard, there's precious little on how he came back from the brink and the part that reconnecting with nature played. And this is the real disappointment. Much has been done and written in the scientific community, for example by Professor Roger Ulrich amongst others, on the effects of exposure to the natural world on patients.
But this is dry academic stuff and I was really hoping that someone with Richards power of prose could present a more cogent and lucid understanding of the role nature can play in restoring the mind.
If that publishers conference had decided that this was really a book about upping sticks from your home in the Chilterns and moving to and re-discovering the East Anglian landscape then I expect it wouldn't have been so attractive or compelling even if it was more honest.
So ignore the title, don't have too many expectations and just enjoy Richards evocative writing. I certainly did.

Courageous and thought provoking, 07 Dec 2005
I enjoyed this book immensely. The author's emotional and physical journey from one beloved and known landscape, through pain and loss, to the renewing strength of another quite different place, is expressed with courage and a disarming honesty that utterly convinces.
I learnt much from the author's thought-provoking meditations on nature and even more about what it is to be human. Thank you Richard Mabey!

Disappointing, 07 Nov 2005
The author is a repected naturalist and nature writer of long standing, so maybe I should have guessed in advance that this book would not quite offer what the title and blurb seemed (to me) to promise. I was hoping that this would be a story of the revelatory/restorative powers of discovering and/or reconnecting with nature, even if all that is meant by that is getting more in touch with the British countryside. What I read was instead a rather mundane account of one person's descent into depression and subsequent recovery, where that person just happened to have the rather agreeable job of spending all his time thinking and writing about the natural world, and reading (and citing, extensively) the works of other authors' accounts of nature in prose and in poetry.

In a nutshell, this is an introspective autobiographical fragment that can reasonably be summarised as "bloke who spends all his time thinking and writing about nature gets depressed; spends some time being depressed; eventually stops being depressed and gets back into thinking and writing about nature" -- to me, it's really not a particularly compelling tale. If it had been "urban bloke who works in factory/office and spends no time in countryside gets depressed; discovers nature; is lifted from depression by new-found love of nature; finds new meaning to life, etc" then it would be; but as it is, the caricature/precis of this book can be shortened to "bloke has a job; bloke gets depressed and can't work; bloke gets better and goes back to old job". Oh, and he moves house too.

The publicity for this book (see the Synopsis on Amazon) makes a deal of the fact that Mabey "...found the courage..." to move home from the Chilterns (where he had lived in the house of his parents from his birth right through to his middle-age) to East Anglia, where the countryside is a bit different. While reading this book, I found it hard to avoid the conclusion that Mr Mabey seems to live a somewhat other-worldly Gentleman Naturalist lifestyle of a type that I thought had fallen into extinction sometime in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Frankly, if you want to read a tale of courage, odds-overcome, and depression defeated, then there are countless much better ones than this. And if you want to read a book on the joys of nature/countryside/wilderness, there are also very many better books to choose from. So, I can't think who would benefit from being recommended this book. Maybe this would be interesting to someone who could be filled with wonder admiration and awe at the thought of a person moving their home from Chiltern countryside eastward by a couple of hundred miles to the flat fens of Norfolk and then noticing the differences; but maybe not.

Excellent guide, but check before travelling, 11 Jul 2006
This is a great way to plan hoildays if you don't want to leave your dog behind! It's just a shame that in some areas there are almost no dog-friendly placed (e.g. Surrey - we had to stay in a 5-star hotel as there was no other option in the local area - what a shame :)

Good descriptions of all entries; unfortunately this particular book is now a bit out of date, so best phone up to check before travelling - can't wait for the 2006/7 guide to come out!

Hilarious, 22 Dec 2005
Wonderful, just wonderful.

For any livestock farmer the humour will ring true.

When I first read this book I had to stop after 15 pages with tears of laughter running down my cheeks.

Some humour will be incomprehensible for the non-farmer. But funny nonetheless.

We are not amused, 02 Dec 2008
I found this completely unfunny, and I too have made the move and found it initially difficult, as per the author - although clearly without the pots of money. She is patronising, stereotyping and totally whingeing. In every chapter I just felt like yelling at her 'if you don't like it here go home!'. She is bordering on insulting to the poor souls she has thrust her prejudices upon in East Anglia. There is nothing new, clever, witty or insightful in what she writes. She picks on well worn themes and flogs a dead horse in an over exaggerated way to try to make it funny. 'Wife in the North' knocks spots off this book.

Best Laughs Ive Had All Year So Far, 18 Aug 2008
My husband and I are planning to move to the country next year, so when I saw this book I couldnt beleive what it was trying to tell me.I had to read it. It was the most funniest book I'd easily read all year! I even had my husband rolling in bed laughing with me. Judy Rumbold attacked every single one of our reasons for moving to the country with vivid clarity, I especially loved what she wrote about country pubs, thatched roofs and garden machinary. but secretly i think it's all a ruse because she's still living there!
Fanatastic read - not for the faint hearted or easily persuaded
Putting all that aside if you still want to move to the country after reading this book, I say go for it! It's more than convinced my husband and I!

If you read this, then read this, 25 May 2008
There's an entire genre of 'moving to the countryside' books, what publisher's like to call settlement non-fiction. The books are normally written to commission, it's a genre I had never explored or read before I wrote my own book, which I suppose I have to now admit, belongs in some way to this genre.

This is clearly one, and I haven't read it. So I who I am I to argue with the reviewers, hence the 5 stars.

But if you do read this book, then try A PLACE IN MY COUNTRY: In Search of a Rural Dream.

I'm biased, because I wrote it. Well and widely reviewed, is sinking like a stone, there you go.

Perhaps the best is The Engima of Arrival by V.S Naipaul, luckily a book I only read after I had finished mine. I think I could have called mine The Enigma or Arrival and been tougher about resisting my publisher's insistence on a subtitle, which all these books seem to have.

Home is where the Aga and dog live !, 12 Mar 2007
Funny, heart warming and so, so down to earth.

I can really say that this book is a sure fire winner for anyone wondering about moving to the country, it really is a warts and all sort of book.

Aga's really are the best bit though, really are dual purpose (airing clothes, cooking and keeping the dog warm. (Be prepared though for falling over said dog when trying to get food out of oven). As the kitchen is normally the warmest part of the house, dogs know what is best,(cracks and holes in beams, uneven draughty floorboards) in most other rooms apart from kitchen. And no these don't get filled in and repaired as this then
doesn't give us country folk something to moan about (cost of LPG excessive) surely if this expense was written about all those townies would be heading back home, as it can be as costly as having a mortgage. But as Judy writes everyone has to put their behind on it, so cost per behind well, not a lot, and farmhouse kitchens are the hub of the home.

Yes, you also have to have a dog, one that manages to get as much cow/horse muck on its fur as at all possible, and slobber all over your nicely cleaned white kitchen appliances, and visitors (you will never notice the slobber marks when nobody is visiting but when someone calls round they will be there in full view, almost with a neon sign glaring look slobber, slobber marks! and not just on the appliances either.

Found it really enjoyable as a book you an read a chapter at a time, so easy to fit in without feeling guilty about not doing other jobs.

I am now passing it on to my husband, as think he will enjoy it, especially the chapter about commuting....(next time you are on the train commuting you will look and see certain people as mentioned in the book).

I think that I found it more enjoyable as I made the move from town to country nine years ago, and it is so truthful, down to earth and really is what living in the country is like. You either love it or hate it, either that or go and have a big bonfire ..... great for stress relief, so my husband says.

By the way could somebody please tell that dammed owl to stop bumping into the roof in the middle of the night, and the starlings to stop building nests in the eaves. Keep being woken up at all hours of day and night.

Brilliant present for anyone thinking of moving to the country, you will be tempted to read it yourself though.

Doesn't say anything about mice or rats though, and they seem to think that they own the loft sometimes, I wonder if they have squatters rights?

the funniest book about the countryside since Cold Comfort Farm, 07 Feb 2007
Like Judy Rumbold, I am struggling with my husband's mid-life crisis, which has taken the form of wanting a house in the country. A friend gave me this book, and I spent the whole of Christmas reading extracts out aloud to him, while the newly-acquired wreck did everything she described. Quaint beams on which to brain yourself? Check. Malfunctioning Aga that collapses on Xmas day? Check. Children who do not want to go out on bracing walks round garden the size of a small European principality, but who spend the whole time watching TV or asking when they can return to London? Check.
Actually, while this is the funniest book about the delusions city folk have about country life, I think Rumbold wasn't exactly lucky in her choice of location. So far the natives are incredibly friendly (that's the West Country, rather than beastly East Anglia for you) and while not sharing her craving for boutiques in the middle of corn fields, there are even a surprising number of interesting small shops. Just read it before you think of living there permanently, and forget about raising chickens.

Doesn't 'do what it says on the tin', 23 Jan 2008
I really wanted to love this book. Depression is a vile, destructive thing, and also something of a mystery, and any tale of its defeat should be both inspiring and informative. Add to this the location, the East Anglian countryside, this book looked (to me) irresistible. And then there were all the fulsome comments from national newspapers on the cover...

However, in the end I was disappointed. I learnt little about depression, its causes and cures - or about the real inner life of the author. I got little sense of the horror of depression at the start, of an eventful and bumpy journey in the middle, of any interest in the psychological forces at work as we travelled, or of a real cure at the end.

Behind a veil of lyricism, the author is really rather reticent. For example, part of his healing process came via a relationship, but we are offered no insight into this at all - no doubt tactful to the lady involved, but it makes dull reading.

Of course, there are good things about this book. Mabey writes with poetry and elegance about the environment, and his love of nature shines through (`It was the kind of day that makes one feel like saying grace for a blade of grass'). Were it marketed as a series of essays on rural life, ecology etc., or just a literary diary of a year in rural East Anglia, it would be very pleasant. But it purports to be something more, and to me it does not deliver on this promise.


A marmite - Love it or hate it!!, 21 May 2007
There is no denying that Richard Mabey is a talented author and naturalist, so its no surprise that the combination of these two qualities produce a book that is both eloquent and imaginative, and will for some people be the epitome of what a thought-provoking 'nature book' should be.

However I was first introduced to Nature Cure through Mabey's column in BBC Wildlife of the same name, and found it to be not only pessimistic but also somewhat dismissive of efforts to aid the natural world. So upon embarking on the book I was prepared for much more of the same, and I wasn't disappointed.

From the word go Mabey seems intent on reminding us of what we have lost rather than what we still have and what it can do for us. Although he describes swift sightings and deer encounters with heart-warming enthusiasm, it is always followed by a lengthy account of how out of tune we have become with nature, or a depressing metaphor for mankind's fall from grace!

Even the title is somewhat misleading. I expected the theme of Nature Cure to be a description of how the power of the natural world helped Mabey overcome depression. However it begins with Mabey already recovered, with barely a glimpse back into his life before recovery. As such the book meanders its way through what can only be described as a rather uneventful 'recuperation' period. Mabey's talent for describing natural events kept me interested enough to see it through to the end but it did become a chore and left me far from inspired.

There are some people who will find the book wonderful. There are beautiful descriptions and evocative thoughts which will make the more romantic nature lover's day. But for the more practical wildlife enthusiasts (like me) who like to learn and experience, it was rather disappointing.
For me Nature Cure was not an exhilarating literary venture in the way Mabey's Flora Britannica was, but it is something a little different, and for that reason is both