A Claxton Diary

Another beautiful, revelatory country diary from one of the best nature writers in Britain.

'If you’ve never read Mark Cocker, then you must.

A spellbinding nature diary that’s up there with the greatest … [Cocker] regularly follows up a beady description with a wild, glorious overview, followed by an astonishing fact or two… Hurrah for Mark Cocker! *****

Being a naturalist, Cocker’s great strength is in the breadth of his senses : his essays seem to cover almost everything he has seen, heard or smelled in the land around his home. He writes clearly, and with a style that has a ring of poetry about it without being pretentious or precious… Spending time with his acutely observant essays will convince many readers that the Great Barrier Reef and vast jungles of Africa can be understood best only by first understanding the startling drama, diversity and complicated natural dynamics of a humble corner of Britain.

If you’ve never read Mark Cocker, then you must . His style is sharp, selfless, and wonderfully evocative, his knowledge deep and wide-ranging but lightly borne, his curiosity joyful and infectious .

If you can’t get out to enjoy the spring weather, immerse yourself in the natural world with Mark Cocker … his writing transports you there.

If you already know Mark Cocker’s work, you’ll need no persuading to buy this – if you don’t, treat yourself to a very fine collection of nature essays.

A Claxton Diary is a collection of his finest essays written on wildlife and encounters with nature.

[ Cocker ] has a dream-like poetic edge , a touch of surreality that tips over into gentle humour… Cocker’s gift is that he can make you look – as he does – at blackbirds in a new way, or, shifting to the micro-scale, at ants bustling about in the cracks between paving slabs.

A master of short-form writing… Cocker combines forensic observation of minutiae with grander universal truths… Exquisite essential reading.

Wonderful.

Mark Cocker is one of the many modern nature writers who I admire... and his latest book, A Claxton Diary , is as well written as all his others.

Mark Cocker is an author and naturalist whose fourteen books include works of biography, history, literary criticism and memoir. Crow Country was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2008 and won the New Angle Prize for Literature in 2009. A Claxton Diary won the East Anglian Book of the Year Award in 2019, and his most recent book, One Midsummer’s Day , was shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Award 2023.