Lovely Armchair Books About the Seasons

In All Weathers is a beautifully written guide to all of Britain’s weathers, told through a series of interesting walks. From the howling winds of Skye to the fen-sucked fogs of East Anglia.

Read our posts on keeping safe in snow and frosty mornings.

Weather in Britain is often deemed simply as good (sunny) or bad (anything else). But changeable weather like we have, should be celebrated. It transforms the light, textures and colours of a landscape, influences our mood and behaviour and of course keeps England a green and pleasant land, through lots of rain!

Britain’s weather has inspired poets and artists, seeped into our language and shaped our way of life. New worlds have emerged – shrouded in fog or refreshed by rain.

This book sees the author walk across Britain through rain, fog, wind, ice and snow, to look at the natural world and where our weather comes from, and how it is changing. It’s time to throw open the doors to embrace the wildness of weather!

By avoiding rain, we’ve forgotten how to appreciate it. How it falls, how it feels, and how it affects our land.

Matt Gaw is a writer, journalist and naturalist who works with Suffolk Wildlife Trust and writes a monthly country diary for Suffolk magazine.

Wild Light: A Printmaker’s Day and Night

Wild Light: A Printmaker’s Day & Night is a unique book of over 70 original illustrations to invite you to look at how light changes the world around us, and how that changes us in turn.

Find inspiration from how the light changes in the mornings, evenings and at midday:

The bouncing light of a cloud-filled storm sky can change a seascape through a palette of blues, greys and turquoises.

The cool summer moonlight across a back garden shed sends long shadows that change the mood of the garden.

The low light of an English February afternoon or the bright sharp mid-morning light of the Cornish seaside, can affect our moods.

Angela Harding is a print artist, who trained in Fine Art and went onto study printmaker, and now lives in the small county of Rutland, where she works in a studio at the bottom of her garden.

A 1000 Mile Walk through a British Spring

Across a Waking Land is the story a nature writer, who sets out on a walk, to match the pace at which oak leaves emerge (roughly 20 miles north each day).

Did you know all spring bulbs (including daffodils) are not safe near pets? Read more on pet-friendly gardens.

Fed up with bleak headlines of biodiversity loss, he fights illness, blizzards (and his own ageing body) to visit every main habitat from between Lymington and Cape Wrath, in an epic 8-week adventure.

And meets those who are fighting for nature (along with kind strangers) with life-changing and positive conclusions.

High upon a Pennine fell, I am sheltering in the lee of a dry-stone wall, watching driven snow scudding across a copper sky over my head. I watch it gathering on my pack, feel it on my neck and cheek.

A few metres to my right, an old Swaledale ewe lies tight to the wall, lumps of frozen snow gathering in her fleece. She is eyeing me sullenly and going nowhere.

Roger Morgan-Grenville is a former soldier who now writes and campaigns on conservation issues. He is chair of trustees of the conservation charity Curlew Action.

An Illustrated Guide to 20 Nature Cycles

Nature Explained is a beautiful children’s book, illustrating 20 cycles of nature, to blend art and science in a fascinating visual tour.

Discover:

• How trees lose their leaves
• What makes flowers bloom
• Why seeds travel

The book is split into six sections:

• Trees
• Leaves
• Flowers
• Seeds
• Mushrooms
• Seasons

The spreads present different scenes and explain the stories of nature, including:

• Pollination
• Photosynthesis
• Germination
• Decomposition

Anatomical profiles feature at the start of each section, so children will learn as they go, with detailed diagrams to pour over. Learning about how nature works has never been so much fun!

Helen Brown is a writer/editor based in London. She studied English Literature at University of Sussex, before deciding to write children’s books, which have been translated into over 15 languages.

Illustrator Claire Scully works in pen, ink and digital. She loves to explore themes of nature and environment, from her London studio.

Angela Harding’s Quartet of Seasonal Prose

Angela Harding is a talented writer and artist, who has illustrated many books, and written more herself. Her lovely quartet of seasonal books is a delight. You can buy all four books as a gift quartet.

The author reflects on this season of new life, as it transforms around her. She takes in landscapes across the land. From her home garden studio in England’s smallest county of Rutland to the low-lying Suffolk marshlands and the windswept hills of Yorkshire. And even to the wildness of Scotland, over the border.

Winter’s Song is a beautifully illustrated pocket hardback guide to the season of winter. This really is something else, a delightful gift for someone you love, or for yourself as bedtime reading. The author reflects on this season of new life, as it transforms around her. She takes in landscapes across the land.

When the snow falls quickly, it brings dramatic change. Hare, rabbit and bird tracks become visible in the lanes and fields.

Spring Unfurled (a printmaker’s view)

Spring Unfurled is a beautifully illustrated pocket hardback guide to the season of spring. This really is something else, a delightful gift for someone you love, or for yourself as bedtime reading.

The seasons are nature’s clock, bringing birds from distant shores to nest and breed. Seasons have no regard for official times. When the days shorten and the evening air is chilly, they know it’s time to leave.

Falling into Autumn: A Printmaker’s View

Autumn season in England casts a golden hue and chill in the air, as nights draw in, birds prepare for migration and animals prepare for winter hibernation. Trees lose their leaves and , and horse chestnut trees drop their seeds (keep conkers and leaf mould away from dogs). 

Falling into Autumn is a beautiful book of prose and art from a printmaker, who inspires others with her personal encounters with nature, inspired by watching jays gathering acorns, and hearing owls hooting.

I am inspired by watching jays gathering acorns, owls hooting and the joy of hearing nightingales. In the shady part of my garden, ferns grow. By the autumn, these same leaves are starting to go brown at the edges.

This seems to be at the same time that the swallows gather to leave. Together with the ferns, they are markers that the summer has gone; that one season has finished and another is about to begin.

A perfect book for anyone who loves art and nature, with beautiful illustrations and evocative imagery. The book features over 30 of Angela’s favourite prints, alongside observations taken from her previous books.

In an interview, she notes that as a child, while other children had pictures of pop stars on their walls, she had images of different birds!

Summer’s Hum completes the quartet.