The Meaning of Geese: A Thousand Miles in Search of Home

Product Information

This diary of that time is quite beautiful in its detail of the pink-foot, brent and snow geese he watches from the edge of fields. It is a quiet book that celebrates these winter visitors and, at the same time, reveals something of the author and his approach to watching nature. For WWF and other conservation NGOs, he worked with indigenous communities and national parks to develop ecotourism and sustainability projects.

The pandemic gave Acheson fallow time to mount his rickety bike and scope Norfolk for the “thousands of lives brought here by wind, genes, instinct and the planet’s axial tilt”. The lovely people at Chelsea Green Publishing sent me an advanced copy and I've been savouring it over the past few weeks.Nick is proud to be an ambassador for Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Pensthorpe, a trustee of Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, a member of the steering group of New Networks for Nature, a patron of Felbeck Trust, and a recent president of Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society.

That’s not to say that Acheson is not successful at painting word pictures of geese; his rich descriptions, full of food-related and sartorial metaphors, are proof of how much he revels in the company of birds. Greeted by tuts and sarcastic eye-rolls, he set the bar a little higher and off we went to gawp at feathered friends through binoculars. I emerged from the book with insights about the author, his wonderful home county, and - of course - of geese, but also a sense of calm and a reflection on my own priorities and self. Since his earliest days he has been enthralled by birds, mammals, insects, plants and other creatures. None outstays its welcome – most of the 100 chapters are two pages or less – allowing the Argentinian novelist to interrogate colonialism, exploitation, even Shakespeare.Over seven months, Nick cycles over 1,200 miles—the exact length of the pinkfeet's migration to Iceland. I would have welcomed more autobiographical material, and Wintering by Stephen Rutt seems the more suitable geese book for laymen. That much is apparent in The Meaning of Geese, a charming account of a winter’s attritional goose-watching in north Norfolk. Their fluctuations, their vexed taxonomies, the “fractal complexity” of their flocks, their skill at whiffling, in which they perform aeronautical body rolls when coming in to land.

Having worked in the wild landscapes and seascapes of every continent, Nick has huge experience of their biodiversity. Sebastián Martínez Daniell’s Two Sherpas ‘becomes a viewpoint from which we can see the whole world’. Participants in Nick's events have included Patrick Barkham, Simon Barnes, Kate Bradbury, Tim Dee, Roy Dennis, Mike Dilger, Jake Fiennes, Nick Gates, Matt Gaw, Dave Goulson, Melissa Harrison, Nick Hayes, Sam Lee, David Lindo, Benedict Macdonald, Erica McAlister, Dara McAnulty, Megan McCubbin, Professor Ian Newton, Chris Packham, Lev Parikian, Stephen Rutt, Anita Sethi and Brigit Strawbridge. As an adult he migrated away to Bolivia to work in conservation for a decade until on a trip back he saw a brent and took it as a sign to continue the good work at home. He is a committed campaigner on the environment, living as sustainably as is possible and contributing to a number of environmental initiatives, including Low Carbon Birding.His passion for the wild geese of Norfolk and the people that share their spaces shines through each page. Mainly written as a diary of Acheson’s daily discoveries and sightings during 2020-2021 this format worked really well. He has spent four years in Asia, many months in both Madagascar and North America, and has swum and snorkelled or watched whales and seabirds in every ocean. Although the author’s encounters are presented through a season of watching geese, and made possible through the miles cycled on an ancient bicycle, don’t expect this to be your typical quest-based nature writing; it is much more than that. As two Sherpas ponder what to do next, their predicament triggers Daniell’s brilliantly tangential excursions into their state of mind, personal histories and aspirations.