In Praise of Floods: The Untamed River and the Life it Brings
James C. Scott (Yale, £20)
I GREW up on the banks of the River Wye in Herefordshire and, as a child, delighted in the flooding of the Bartonsham Meadows. Apart from the anarchic breaking of bounds, the event brought a mass of wildfowl, including my first northern pintail. Decades earlier, the flooding of the meadows, an almost annual occurrence, prompted Elgar to compose The River. Of course, as an adult trying to drive into Hereford, the river’s habit of wintery overspilling onto Belmont roundabout was a nuisance. I also learned to swim in the Wye; these days, due to its pollution, the great salmon river is gravely ill—I would not enter it today wearing waders.
I mention all this…
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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 26, 2025