The Sacred Combe

Reflections on the natural world and our place within it from one of our finest natural history writers - nature writing at its very best.We've all got one. A secret, special place. Hidden. Enclosed. A little greener and more fertile than the world outside. Here the birds are slightly more exotic, slightly more confiding, the grass greener and the fruit sweeter. To know such a place, to love such a place, is part of being human. Sometimes it's a place of myth, like the Garden of Eden. Sometimes it exists in fictional form, like Narnia or Shangri-La. Sometimes it comes in memories of a golden day in childhood, or in a glorious, doomed love affair. Sometimes it's a real place that we daren't go back to, for fear that it - or we - had changed. And just occasionally it's a real place. A place where you leave a small piece of your heart and return as often as you can so as not to lose it. It's a place of privilege. Simon Barnes found such a place when he woke in his first morning in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia to find elephants eating the roof of his hut. It was a homecoming, and he has been faithful to that passion ever since. Here he has known peace, danger, discomfort, fear and a profound sense of oneness with the Valley, with all nature and with the world. With the Valley he found completion. This book explores the special places of the mind and the world, with special reference to the Luangwa Valley and the glorious support of the Valley's great artist, Pam Carr. It's a book about the quest for paradise, and the eternal human search to find such a paradise everywhere.

1 The Valley2 A Hoopoe3 Some Famous Elephants4 The Leopard and Her Child5 Riding Through the Glen6 Some other Boyhood Identities7 An Enchanted Combe8 The Rift9 Love Dawns10 Pig in the Middle11 Some African Animals that Can Kill You12 A Walk13 Some Turds14 Edenever15 A Patient Man16 Ask Alice17 A Brave Man18 Mammals Sighted in North Luangwa National Park19 Paradise within Paradise20 Rio By the Sea-oh21 Big Boy and Little Boy22 Mchenja23 Book-list24 Some Bob Stories25 Cross Lady26 The Lion Dream27 A Fool in Wales28 That Near-death Thing29 Bucket List Ideas30 Lost Innocence31 Walls of the Combe32 Giraffe Crossing33 Jill and Jewel34 Delicate Savagery35 Sensitive Types36 Manhattan White37 Secret Sacred Monsters38 Some Famous British Big Cats39 Being Prey40 Nsefu41 Morning42 A Good Old Lovey-up43 Lovely Leah44 Doing the Knowledge45 How We Destroyed Eden46 The Sin of Pride47 Ring a Dong Dillo48 The Spotlight Kid49 Wild Centaurettes50 The Suicide Month51 Climate of the Luangwa Valley52 Tourism53 Three Lists of Five54 Uncle Monty's Cat55 Banished from Paradise56 Nothing Wasted57 Pretty Woman58 Rain59 A New Brain60 Fight or Flight61 Crocodile Fears62 Are there Werewolves Still for Tea63 Death and All That64 Blood etc.65 A Manly Tear66 The Unenchanted Combe67 Cranes of the World68 Crowning Glory69 All One70 Wet, Wetter, Wettest71 Giving Blood72 My Family73 A Tribute in a Tributary74 Fear in the Air75 The Emerald Season76 Not-seeing season77 Caracal78 Whydah Still and Whydah79 The Eureka Bird80 Listening to the Land81 The Golden Age82 A Sacred Combe in Redditch83 A Cathedral84 Vermin85 The Curse of Specialness86 Last Footpring87 A Twitcher at Large88 Combe Together89 Cetti's90 First Day of Spring91 The Great Comback92 Bugles in the Sky93 The Fawn94 Doggedness95 The Old Hippy96 A Banquet97 Being Quite Wise98 Phoenix on Speed99 Fired with Joy100 Pillars of Wisdom101 StormAcknowledgements