A Focus On Nature, Books and Reviews

22nd September 2016

AFON

Book Review: Fingers In The Sparkle Jar

Before I started reading this book, I honestly didn’t know quite what to expect from it. Having seen many TV programmes that Chris has presented, I didn’t expect an overly fluffy, soft book about tales of cute wildlife, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be as gritty, as brutally honest, yet beautifully poetic.

Don’t get me wrong – animals feature heavily in the book, but the focus is far more on the effect that these wildlife encounters have had at shaping a young naturalist – I have never yet read a memoir with as much vivid detail, down to describing the taste of a tadpole (described as ‘moreish’, if I remember correctly).

A childhood bedroom filled with prized possessions including jars of tadpoles, boxes of slow worms and skulls struck a chord with me – I write this from a desk that, along with other things, houses owl pellets, a rather extraordinary number of skulls, feathers, and an articulated pied wagtail skeleton in a jar. Death is a common theme running through this book – much of the narrative revolves around various experiences of death, including that of a beloved pet kestrel, and the effect that such events had on the author.

Much of the writing has a rather detached feel to it due to frequently changing tenses from chapter to chapter, which I admit took some getting used to. A lot of the recounting of childhood memories is done through the 3^rd person, often through someone else’s eyes such as family members, neighbours, or friends (or the ice-cream man!).  This detached feel that is often present in the style of writing is echoed in the author’s experiences, who is frequently frustrated or flustered when trying to communicate with others, unless, of course, they are willing to sit with him as he talks fervently about dinosaurs.

A ‘coming-of-age’ memoir, most of the writing is focussed on Chris’s childhood and teen years, but at the end of each chapter of the book is a more ‘modern’ section from the early 2000s, and it was these sections that I think I most identified with. Talking about mental health isn’t easy. There is still so much stigma and taboo surrounding the subject, and although things, thankfully, do seem to be improving, it is still refreshing to see a ‘public figure’ openly discussing everything up to and including a failed suicide attempt.

Although mental health is not the main focus of the book, I do hope that a young naturalist, perhaps struggling as I did in my teens (and to this day, but with much improvement) with such issues, will read this frank, but hopeful, recounting of treatment of mental health, and feel encouraged to seek any help that they may require.

And to everyone else, I hope you read this, and dream of kestrels.