Elena Mannion: Guest Post
Through a series of guest posts, I am exploring Nature Connection and how different people experience and connect with the natural world.
In this post, Elena Mannion talks about how her new book, The Happy Hedgerow, came about, and the importance of connecting children to nature.
When life slowed down at the start of Covid, I was both frustrated and liberated, thrown off my stride like most people. Nevertheless, there was now the time, peace and quiet to get down to writing! I had written stories and poetry on and off all my life, and suddenly the enforced calm allowed the creative space to widen. Many will recognise that feeling.
Walking, listening to nature, and observing closely became the everyday.
There was a chance to fully acknowledge the urgency of connecting children to their inheritance: nature in general, and our wonderful, bountiful landscape in particular.
If the bonds had been weakened, we could act to fix it.
Hedgerows – humble, rich, tangled, quietly harbouring so much life – and food! – struck me as an overlooked subject. Not only a feature of our countryside, towns and cities have them in abundance! A little research told me they are actually our largest wildlife habitat. Who would have thought? Ideas germinated for the story and it quickly seemed to write itself, with Old Oak emerging as the kindly guardian of his hedgerow. My brilliant illustrator, Erin Brown, created a landscape in glorious detail, teeming with flora and fauna: children will recognise everything they see on their walks and at play, and hopefully feel endorsed in their natural attachment to nature.
The bulldozing of the Far Hedgerow is a chilling moment in the story. The key was to introduce hope within a few pages. Hedgerows can be replanted, restoration is possible. Nature usually gives us another chance. It just needs space and kindness!
Children need that sense that things can be recovered, now more than ever before, and I hope that my book achieves that.
When I had written The Happy Hedgerow, I learned that National Hedgerow Week was being established in 2021 by The Tree Council and their partners: a wonderful surprise! I have since been shown the basics of hedge-laying at the Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT) at Barton in Cambridgeshire. It involves cutting and bending existing hedges to improve their thickness and close any gaps, so that ‘leggy’ hedgerows thrive again. It’s quite a skill, and can’t be rushed, so it has the prerequisites of a rewarding hobby!
For young people, it could be one to include in a Duke of Edinburgh Award. The Tree Council website https://treecouncil.org.uk/ can help with connecting to volunteer groups, and CRT farms https://www.countrysiderestorationtrust.com/ welcome young and old alike for all sorts of countryside activities. There are opportunities in the city as well as beyond, and sometimes a short train ride may be all it takes to get involved!