Welcome to Jonathan

[gloria townsin]

Hi Welcome to our wonderful forum. Please let us know something about you and how you came to read The Minack Chronicles. :lol:

[Kath Mulligan]

Hi Jonathon, welcome to our friendly forum, looking forward to hearing from you about your interest in Derek, Jeannie and the Chronicles.

Kath

[jonathanbriggs]

hello, and thanks for the welcome messages.

I've been an armchair Minack admirer since the early 1970s, when I first took out some of Derek's books from the public library (I would have been about 12!). In those days I was beginning to think about how to make a career out of natural history/animals - and was an avid reader of all animal books - Durrell, Attenborough etc. I soon realised that there was no career structure to speak of - all my heroes, including Derek Tangye, appeared to be living a precarious lifestyle, only making a living from books.

Derek's books were very different - we too had cats, and I had plans to work with plants (my first degree is in botany) , and so I could relate to them more directly - but they were worrying too - in career terms - making a living still seemed very difficult!

To cut a long story short I ended up working in nature conservation - and have recently (last year) left British Waterways after 20 years helping pioneer a conservation approach to canal management. There was a career in wildlife after all - but nature conservation as a working life hadn't been invented in the early 70s.

These days I'm concentrating on, er, writing work - and the living is difficult - so perhaps I have gone full circle. One of my many current interests is the personalities and development of nature conservation thinking in the mid-late 20th century - and I take a lot of pleasure in finding out about both the well-known, and the neglected, pioneers. Major pre-occupations include Bramwell Evens (Romany of the BBC - the original broadcasting naturalist from the 30s), Ludwig Koch, the pioneer birdsong recorder, Norman Ellison (who replaced Evens as the Children's Hour naturalist - calling himself Nomad), early wildlife photographers (eg Oliver Pike) - plus many more familiar names from the 50s and 60s. I do the website for Romany Society, who celebrate Bramwell Evens as the first BBC naturalist - you can find out more at www.romanysociety.org.uk.

The Minack stories form a fascinating extra, and parallel, thread to the others - and my recent sign-up to the discussion thread has been prompted by a recent (last week) visit to Oliver Land when walking the coast path - and a subsequent suggestion by the editor of Book & Magazine Collector (BMC) that I do an update on the Minack books for them (they last covered Derek's books about 20 years ago). I often write for BMC - most recently covering the early, 1950s and 60s, books of Sir David Attenborough, and am due to do a piece about Ellison (Nomad of the BBC) soon.

And I'm fascinated by Oliver Land too - having spent many years advising on, and writing about, unusual nature reserves - I'm keen to learn a lot more - so will be down there again soon.

I'm very aware that I'm a bit rusty on Derek's later works though - so will be updating myself very soon - so that I feel sufficiently well informed (and worthy) of writing about the books - you'll have to excuse me if I ask silly questions.

That's probably enough for now. Except to say that I also do a lot of work with mistletoe (not much of that in Cornwall - perhaps there should be some in Oliver Land?) - more on that at www.mistletoe.org.uk

[gloria townsin]

Wow Jonathan..........what a complete answer to our welcome question. I think you will find mistletoe growing in an old orchard at Cothele (I'm pretty sure that's where we saw it) practically every tree was loaded with it. I live within in close proximity to the Grand Union Canal which I am sure you will be familiar with. At one time my sister lived in a house whose garden went right down to the canal. It was fabulous until a certain large building company slew (and I use that word advisedly) the beautiful trees on the opposite embankment and built their truly ugly rabbit hutch houses. They managed to hack at the trees on a Sunday when there was no-one in the local council offices to stop them, as it transpired they were not supposed to fell them, by the time anyone could be contacted it was all too late and the trees were down. Wouldn't matter to them if they were fined as they are such a big company. It is interesting that you are going to write up Derek's books for BMC - I would be interested to read the report when it is done. There are many people here who know the books really well and love them dearly. Patricia Wilnecker is also someone who knows them through and through so we will be waiting with bated breath.
Anyway check out the mistletoe next time you are in Cornwall (you don't say where you live now). Jack Hargreaves was another country life TV presenter. Father of Jenny who used to present one of the childrens magazine programmes I think it might have been 'Magpie'. Her Mother played the lead role in 'Genevieve' opposite Keneth Moore (can't remember her name right now). Anyway hope you will continue to post about your country experiences and visits to Oliver Land etc. :lol:

[Kath Mulligan]

Hello Jonathan what a very interesting life you have had. Look forward to reading your update on the Minack Chronicles if you are able to post it on this forum too.

Don't worry about asking seemingly silly questions. We are all Minack devotees and happy to talk for ever about our favourite subject, so ask away and no doubt at least one of us will be able to provide an answer.

Kath

[nashie]

Hi Jonathan and welcome to our forum. Thanks for your fascinating intro - the link to the site re Romany was very interesting, as was also the one re mistletoe. I'll be ordering one of the grow your own packs for next February. I've not been able to find any wild mistletoe here in West Penwith, so I've tried to grow my own from seeds left over from our Christmas mistletoe. I tried to get it to take on the blackthorn and hawthorn that grows on our stone walls, but without any luck over the past two years. I probably need some growing hints.
Glad to hear you've visited Oliver Land and also that you will be writing about the Tangyes - do keep us in touch on developments.

[gloria townsin]

Hi John there is a secret or trick or two to growing mistletoe and I'm blowed if I can remember what they are. I think it was a subject in a gardening magazine a while ago but I bet I can't find it now. As I said I'm sure it was Cothele we went to a couple of years ago and the orchard trees were literally hung with mistletoe, I remember saying to Eddie it would be worth a lot of money at Christmas. Perhaps you could take a look at some already growing wild and see if any berries had dropped off...........they might take better. As it needs a host perhaps there are certain conditions that encourage it to grow. Will have a look through my many gardening books, though I think it would be a bit more specialist. Hope Jonathan can help. :lol:

[Kath Mulligan]

I seem to remember reading that a good host tree is apple. You press the berries into the crevices between branch and trunk I think.

I know there is a place in Herefordshire or Shropshire where they have a mistletoe market at Christmas and there are loads of orchards in Herefordshire.

Kath

[gloria townsin]

Yep Kath I think you are right.........and I think it helps if the host tree is oldish.

[BunnyHankers]

Welcome Jonathan.

Bunny

[Heather]

Hello Jonathan! :D

Welcome to FOMS! Lucky you being in Oliver Land so recently, it is an incredible place isn't it? So peaceful!

Look forward to "seeing" you around the boards!

Heather

[jonathanbriggs]

Hi all,

Thanks again for the welcome messages. I've been filling in some of the holes in my Minack books collection over the last couple of weeks - so will be starting to ask questions soon - but I will post those somewhere more suitable within the Discussion Board.

In answer to the questions about how to grow mistletoe, I think the best thing is to refer you to a page on my mistletoe website where I've outlined my favoured technique.

Key things to remember are to choose a suitable host (apple, poplar, long-leaved willows, and most rose family-type shrubs like hawthorn - and many others), to plant in February/March (the berries are often unripe at Christmas), and to smear the seed from the berry on a youngish branch (no need to cut a hole in old bark).

More info at http://www.mistletoe.org.uk/GrowYourOwn/GrowYourOwnIntro.htm. The Worcestershire mistletoe group I work with market a Grow-Your-Own kit - but that's not available now until next spring (details at http://www.tenbury-mistletoe.co.uk.

Hope this helps. You can email mistletoe queries direct to me at jonathanbriggs@mistletoe.org.uk (though do forgive me if I don't reply for a week or two!).

Cheers

Jonathan