When I read about the author on the flyleaf of this book, I must admit my heart sank: ‘Tristan has led expeditions in five continents and is the only living person to have both flown solo and sailed singlehanded across the Atlantic.’ Oh no, I thought, not another gung-ho memoir by some posh explorer, chronicling his adventures crossing the Andes on a pogo stick or paddling up the Amazon in a bathtub.
Thankfully, Wild Signs and Star Paths is nothing of the sort. It’s a thoughtful, lyrical book about the hidden connections between flora and fauna, the landscape and the weather, and most of its wise and wondrous observations are gleaned from the author’s rambles around the English countryside — mainly amid the woods and meadows of his beloved South Downs.
Gooley does include the odd aside about Bedouin tribesmen and Australian aborigines, but his main point is that you don’t need to travel far to connect (or reconnect) with the great outdoors. Indeed, a lot of the animals he talks about live only a short walk from your front door. And who’s to say these creatures are any less remarkable? Wouldn’t you be thrilled to see a fox or badger if you’d never come across one before?
Gooley is full of fascinating facts about such animals and their habitat; but his book is mainly about how the whole picture fits together. He’s learned to pick up all sorts of clues from the natural world, finding his way around without a map or compass and anticipating what kind of creatures he’ll meet along the way. He reckons these are things we all used to know, and can easily relearn if we want to. Indeed, now I’ve read this book I’m seeing all sorts of things I never noticed before, even on my strolls around the scruffy woods behind my boring suburban home.
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