Reports from the Valley

Celebrated and lauded novelist Stefan Brijs once described himself as an ‘ecological refugee’ and, in search of silence and a beautiful natural landscape, decided to settle in Andalusia. There he observes the world from a writing cabin with a panoramic window. On days when the writing is slow-going, he makes notes on the natural world around him. Sometimes this results in one sentence, at other times in a few paragraphs and occasionally in a lengthy account that continues beyond a single season. This is how the observations of nature in ‘Andalusian Logbook’ came about, as well as this second seasonal diary, ‘Reports from the Valley’. In between the notes, he also reports on his visits to better and lesser known nature reserves in Andalusia and Extremadura.

This book may be based on notes, but it’s certainly no filler. Each of the observations reflects Brijs’ passion for flora and fauna, his curiosity about the unknown and his hunger for knowledge. At the same time this highly sophisticated celebration of the beauty of nature sounds a note of alarm about man’s careless treatment of nature. But despite this sense of decline, Brijs also makes room for observations that demonstrate that with minimal effort, judicious use of knowledge and lots of good will conservation is certainly possible.