Summer: An Anthology for the Changing Seasons

Title: Summer: An Anthology for the Changing Seasons

Writer: Melissa Harrison (editor)

Publishing House: Elliott & Thompson

Day of Publication: May 19th 2016

Rating: 5 stars

‘’If spring is all about looking forward, and autumn about looking back, summer surely is the present moment: a long, hot now that marks the sultry climax of the year. {…} it is a time of fruition and plenty, of promises fulfilled. Spring’s generative riotousness slows and ceases, and a stillness settles over the land.’’

The summer of 2018 is slowly coming to an end. Eventful or not, unusually warm or not, summer always brings me to a contradictory state of mind. When May begins, I can’t wait for summer to come but by the mid of July, I become restless, hating all the heat and the noise and the long days. You see, this is why I cherish the dog days and save the main part of my holidays for the end of August. This lovely anthology dedicated to summer, edited by Melissa Harrison made me appreciate the season slightly more.

A wonderful array of articles, poetry, essays, extracts from classic literary moments, stories and passages from famous writers, from the Middle Ages to our times. It is focused on the British landscape but it will touch the heart of every reader regardless of our home countries. If it managed to touch my obnoxiously autumn/winter- worshipping soul, it will definitely make you fall in love and perhaps the summer days will last a little longer.

‘’In late springtime the evening sun leaves a residue of light and brightness on sea, loch and river waters. Nights, still dark and starlit, become thinner somehow, and watery. Evening lengthen, end-of-day airs are white and turquoise, amber and rose, insect-humming and bird-filled.’’

The summer evening sun and wind, stargazing once darkness arrives while the perfume of the jasmine fills the air. The summer storms that leave behind the smell of the refreshed grass. The open-air performances where nature provides the finest stage sets for beloved plays. There are so many beautiful moments in this anthology…A beautiful text on the changes summer brings to the nature of the Highlands by Annie Worsley, a moving account of the life cycle of the glow – worm by John Taylor, a rather dark, haunting text on gulls, owls, and bats by Esther Woolfson, a memorable extract from Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, one of the greatest writers in Literature (a writer that a certain ‘’reviewer’’ in Goodreads felt necessary to disrespect through vile words and unspeakable phrases…Why am I surprised, though? As I have said, there is an idiot in every corner….)

‘’Throughout the long evenings of July, the village women bend low in their gardens over raspberry cane and currant bush, gooseberry and loganberry.’’

Start a journey to the Highlands, Dartmoor, Dorset, Hampshire, Cumbria. Feast while the haymaking takes place, see the gulls, the wrens, the curlews, the badgers and the otters. Smell the roses and the orchids, bow to the beauty of the dahlias and the sunflowers. Taste the currants and the apricots, the peaches and the corns. Rest under the ivy on the wall of a pretty, peaceful village church under the afternoon sunlight. This is an urgent plea to respect nature, our mother. The most generous mother of all, the one that gives freely only to receive burnt forests, disrespect and violation by the greed and the bottomless stupidity of the humans. This is a book full of colours, sounds and perfumes, a homage to the British summer landscape.

‘’Those Elysian summers, polished to dazzling brightness by the flow of years, can never be recaptured; but we have this summer, however imperfect we as adults may deem it, and we can go out and seek it at every opportunity we find.’’