The author says it all. I picked up this book in a little Gloucester bookshop a few years ago, but I've finally just had a chance to read it in its entirety. What a Joy! It reminded me that the stresses and travails we encounter in our daily lives are so trivial at best, compared to the world we pass by everyday. The author's recollection of his boyhood on the Argentinian pampas and his adventures with snakes and birds and vizcachas made his words come alive, and I felt I was there with him. A treasure and one I would read to kids who have the gift of spirit in them, and to remind them that all of what he wrote is disappearing.


A neglected masterpiece   January 17, 1998
 19 out of 20 found this review helpful

We badly need to have this book once more available. Full of insights into the meaning of human life in nature, it also chronicles the passing of a virgin landscape in S.America with the coming of a predatory civilization. Hudson came of age with little schooling but endless hours of observing life (especially birds) and reading. His friends in England, where he went in his 30s, often wondered why he was habitually sad. This profound reminiscence explains why.