5.0 out of 5 stars Honest and helpful

D. · 23 August 2017

Nature Cure describes well-known naturalist and author Richard Mabey’s recovery from a severe depression. We find him at the start of the book in bed, blankly gazing at the wall. But encouraged by friends and realizing the need for a change of air, he uproots himself from the family house in the Chilterns where he and his sister have lived for 110 years between them, and heads off to East Anglia to live in a room in a farmhouse. His room is “like a small forest” with “more oak inside it than out.” And here he strings up a series of low-energy lamps and makes his nest, amazingly not with a computer but two manual typewriters.Throughout, Mabey describes his breakdown and steady recovery with his characteristic laid-back style, like your favourite uncle relating exploits from a distant past. We get a glimpse of what may have caused his freefall into depression when he describes what it takes to be a full-time writer: “doggedness to be alone in a room for a very long time.”His honesty is admirable. Owning up to depression is never easy, even these days, perhaps especially for a successful writer at the pinnacle of his career (he had just completed the epic and lauded Flora Brittanica). Even more difficult was when depression robbed him of his desire to write: “it made me lose that reflex, it was like losing the instinct to put one foot in front of the other.” But obviously Mabey regained that reflex, and how he did is very touching – and through writing he began to unlock “pieces of me that had been dormant for years.”His style is warmly conversational, making the book easy and pleasurable to read, despite the subject matter. He gently leads you from subject to subject, so that you forget where the conversation started. One moment he is describing wild horses on Redgrove Fen, and his musings about their origins leads to cave paintings in France and then to local Stone Age flint mines in Norfolk, and somehow to Virginia Woolf and moats and the author Roger Deakin. Is this what he refers to later as “free-range reading?”A criticism was brewing in my mind – that Mabey was simply too nice. But then around halfway he criticizes David Attenborough! I had to re-read the paragraph to make sure I was not mistaken. I wasn’t. He even called a scene from Attenborough’s “The Life of Mammals” a freak show.Nature Cure is definitely a recommended read, for anyone interested in good writing about nature, and the cure he describes might well be of benefit to others suffering from depression too.

4.0 out of 5 stars Nature Cure- Richard Mabey

A. · 30 April 2013

I enjoyed this unusual very personal approach to a book on Nature. The title almost suggests a therapeutic natural cure such as one would buy in a herbalists store, but Richard Mabey has drawn off all that a man can from the simple yet highly effective healing process that living extremely close to a natural environment can offer, if one has his special kind of sensitivity to receive and benefit from it. The part of the book, relatively small , which dealt with his mental stress gave one a very vivid awareness of being in his shoes, unable to cope and lift himself out of the stifling, paralising stiuation in which he had descended.The cure which came about through the love and support of friends and above all , a change of environment jerked him into a new state of awareness and he was able very gradually to take stock of himself, his life and future thanks to the nourishment of the new nature surrounding him.

3.0 out of 5 stars Reflections on nature rather than nature as a cure.

V. · 30 May 2016

I thought, given the review and the blurb, that this would be an enlightening view of how nature facilitates recovery. It isn't.It is a beautifully crafted work about Richards relationship with nature and the factors that threaten them. There is the occasional mention of anxiety and how people around him helped at time of low mood.I struggle when things get a little to 'arty'. At one point the start of the war in Afghanistan is mentioned and how we were all advised to tape up our windows for safety at the outbreak. Sorry but that's a step too far for me.In the end I found myself struggling to read more than a page at a time. The discussions are interesting and thought provoking, but there was too little about how nature helped to facilitate recovery.

5.0 out of 5 stars A book of re-connections.

S.M. · 15 April 2010

Nature Cure is an account of Richard Mabey's move from the Chilterns to East Anglia and of his recovery from depression. In both cases these are stories of reconnection - with the landscape and with his self.Mabey had lived for most of his life in one house in the Chiltern Hills, he owned a wood there and, as much of his other work suggests, the place was central to who he was. Depression robbed him of that connection and in the end he was needed to leave. He needed to reconnect with a place and he needed to reconnect with the person he was. In the end he suceeds.Anybody who has lost touch with a place they love, or has struggled with depression will recognize the things described in this book. However, this is not just a book for migrants or the depressed, far from it. It is full of simple stories that put place and self at the centre of things - and in these days of increasing stress and social isolation these are no bad stories to hear. We often define ourselves through our relationships with place and space and struggle when these are stripped of meaning.Mabey writes "I don't think that love of one's own place that bears no hostility to others is a bad emotion", but I think it may have taken him a while to reach this conclusion.This is a fascinating and honest account of a person trapped in the quick sand of depression,change and doubt, and finally emerging on to the firm ground of connection. Highly recommended.

Five Stars

R. · 24 August 2016

Great book, thanks.

soul healing

K.M. · 26 January 2016

I have always loved Richard Mabey's writing, but this book really touches a deep chord within me. it is a very personal account of his healing process and thanks to his beautiful prose as a reader I feel I can follow the ripples of his soul, the subtle perceptions. This is in no-way a self-pitying book. On the contrary, he reflects on his illness both with empathy and detachment.Very insightful and a beautiful read. I am not done with it yet, but I look forward to every page.

Nature Cure

E.M.E. · 25 November 2012

This book was interesting but the content was not as interesting as other books. I had a hard time keeping myself interested.