Review: Foxes Unearthed by Lucy Jones

Foxes Unearthed
by Lucy Jones
Published by Elliott & Thompson
Non-fiction, natural history

As one of the largest predators left in Britain, the fox is captivating: a comfortably familiar figure in our country landscapes; and intriguing flash of bright-eyed wildness in our towns.

Yet no other animal attracts such controversy, has provoked more column inches or been so ambiguously woven into our culture over centuries, perceived variously as a beautiful animal, a cunning rogue, a vicious pest and a worthy foe. As well as being the most ubiquitous of wild animals, it is also the least understood.

In Foxes Unearthed Lucy Jones investigates the truth about foxes in a media landscape that often carries complex agendas. Delving into fact, fiction, folklore and her own family history, Lucy travels the length of Britain to find out first-hand why these animals incite such passionate emotions, revealing our rich and complex relationship with one of our most loved - and most vilified - wild animals. This compelling narrative adds much-needed depth to the debate on foxes, asking what our attitudes towards the red fox say about us - and, ultimately, about our relationship with the natural world.

"People both loathe and love the animal fiercely, and it stands apart from the rest of British wildlife because of its enemies and friends on both sides. The fox has never been a tabula rasa, but it has become more things to more people since attitudes towards animals shifted in the twentieth century."

Lucy Jones's concluding point sums up Foxes Unearthed perfectly. The British people and foxes have a complicated relationship, from the very beginning to the urban foxes nowadays. Easiest way to describe the relationship and history between them is passionate, whether it's passionate hate or love. Jones offers a valuable history here, and it's truly gorgeous because how dedicated Jones is to show both sides of the argument; there's chapters for historical and literacy point of view of foxes, as well as separate chapters for people who hunt foxes and think them as pest, and for those who fight to stop the fox hunting and care for foxes.

Fox has been vilified throughout history and not only in Britain. However, the topic has been highly debated and fierce for centuries because foxes are largest predator in Britain, since the wolves have been extinct since the eighteenth century (and even then, wolves mainly inhabited Scotland). I have a keen interest for wildlife natural history surrounding wolves and foxes. Last year I read The Last Wolf, and now I delved into the topic of foxes. Lucy Jones is engaging writer and the flow was smooth without loosing any credibility as Jones quotes her sources and there's extensive notes and bibliography included.

Foxes Unearthed offers an extensive insight to the story of love and loathing in modern Britain, and I highly recommend it to everyone who's interested in the topic.

4 of 5 stars

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Review: The Last Wolf by Jim Crumley

The Last Wolf
by Jim Crumley
Published by Birlinn
Paperback (purchased)
Non-fiction, natural history

In The Last Wolf, Jim Crumley explores the place of the wolf in Scotland - past, present and future - and challenges many of the myths that have been regarded for centuries as biological fact. Bringing to bear a lifetime's immersion in his native landscape and more than twenty years as a professional nature writer, Crumley questions much of the written evidence on the plight of the wolf in light of contemporary knowledge and considers the wolf in today's world, an examination that ranges from Highland Scotland to Devon and from Yellowstone in North America to Norway and Italy, as he pursues a more considered portrait of the animal than the history books have previously offered.

Within the narrative, Crumley also examines the extraordinary phenomenon of wolf reintroductions, physically transforming the landscapes in which they live that even the very colours of the land change under the influence of teeming grasses, flowers, trees, butterflies, birds, and mammals that flourish in their company. Crumley makes the case for their reintroduction into Scotland with all the passion and poetic fervour that has become the hallmark of his writing over the years. This is an elegant, erudite and imaginative account that readdresses the place of the wolf in modern Scotland.

"There can be no reliable history of the wolf. Histories, after all, are only ever written by people, and there is no species less qualified and less entitled than yours and mine to write that particular history."

Jim Crumley has a very valuable point here. The Last Wolf is gorgeous natural history of the wolves in Scotland; extinct since the eighteenth century because of humans, and reintroduction programs not going anywhere because as Crumley argued, the wolf has been painted as the enemy, the demon, since the Middle Ages. Still, Scotland's ecosystem needs wolves, because they are the top predator (which, not counting humans, Scotland's wilderness doesn't really have) to keep the red deer numbers down. And it is proven that the large herds of the red deer are not good for the ecosystem because they cause erosion. Crumley goes through all this and gives examples of Yellowstones and Norway's wolf reintroduction programs, which have been successful. As Crumley argues, Scotland's wilderness needs free, wild wolves.

I haven't really delved into natural history before, despite my keen interest in wild animals such as wolves and foxes. After reading The Last Wolf, I'm more than interested in reading some of Crumley's other books and delving into the world of natural history books more. Crumley's writing is very poetic yet simple; it's a pleasure to read. He knows how to paint a picture of the Highlands - especially Rannoch Moor - in a way that just won't leave reader alone. It's almost haunting picture of wilderness and its dwellers. Absolutely beautiful and stunning, and with such interesting topic as the history of wolf in Scotland, especially since it the presence/absence of wolves is something that has been debated over decades.

The Last Wolf is important book, and it'll without a doubt stay with me for a long time. It's one of those influential books that just make readers think, especially with such a good argumentation as Crumley presented. I do highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in the topic. 

5 of 5 stars

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