Fowler William Warde Selected Gordon Ottewell (1 results)
- Hardcover
- First Edition
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Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership marks. Numerous illustrations. 210 pages clean and tight. This collection of William Warde Fowler's work represents English rural literature at…its very best and his gentle observations on nature have a universal appeal to any lover of our countryside and our wildlife. Warde Fowler concentrated on the village of Kingham where he lived for many years, and on Oxford where he was a classical don. This selection covers the years from 1884, when he first started writing for The Oxford Magazine, through to the First World War, by which time he had written six books and numerous articles. His abiding interest was in birds and, it is of the habits and of the lives of these which he writes so beautifully. But his range was wide and in pieces such as `In Praise of Rain' we experience to the full his great powers of observation and descriptive writing. `It is rain, the gentle constant rain of the ocean, that has moulded his (an Englishman's) country into hill and dale, and made his roads twist and turn, mount and descend, ever giving him fresh scenes as he moves along them. It is this gentle rain, not coming in seasonal deluge, but spreading itself in fair proportion over the whole year, that has given such constant variety to his landscape, and has given himself the unconscious eye of an artist in contemplating it, and suiting to it the works of his hands. The approach of rain, the passing of rain, the rain over and gone - all these phases having an educating power on his eye and mind, though he be unconscious of it. They-are beautiful in themselves, and the changes they work in the atmosphere and on the earth keep his outdoor mind alive and stirring.' There is humour and the human touch in all his writing and E.V. Lucas, writing in 1913, compared Fowler's last book, Kingham Old and New with Thoreau's Walden, and Cranford and gave it as an example of the very best in rural literature. `This book is human to the core, and more than merely human, it has personality and underlying tenderness and sense of the best in life that makes it literature. Between the lines on every page one catches glimpses of one who loves his fellow men, and has acquired rich stores of sunny wisdom and sympathy from an observant life of tranquil delight in nature, books and neighbours.' Gordon Ottewell was born in Swanick, Derbyshire, and worked underground as a mining surveyor for almost ten years before training as a teacher. In 1964, he was appointed Headteacher of Kingham village school, in Oxfordshire. It was during this time that he fell under the spell of the nature writings of William Warde Fowler. His other books include Journey From Darkness (a mining story for children), Wildlife Walks in the North Cotswolds and A Cotswold Quiz Book. Size: 8vo.
