I am an author and natural navigator. I set up my natural navigation school in 2008 and am the author of award-winning and internationally bestselling books, including The Natural Navigator (2010) The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs (2014), How to Read Water (2016), and The Secret World of Weather (2021), some of the world’s only books covering natural navigation. I have spent decades hunting for clues and signs in nature, across the globe, which may be why I am sometimes nicknamed: “The Sherlock Holmes of Nature”.
I wrote...
The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs: Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals--And Other Forgotten Skil
By
Tristan Gooley
What is my book about?
The natural world is filled with clues. The roots of a tree indicate direction; the Big Dipper tells the time; a passing butterfly hints at the weather; a sand dune reveals prevailing wind; the scent of cinnamon suggests altitude; a budding flower points south. To help you understand nature as he does, Gooley shares more than 850 tips for navigation, forecasting, tracking, and more, gathered from decades spent walking the landscape around his home and around the world.
Whether you’re walking in the country or city, along a coastline, or by night, this is the ultimate resource on what the land, sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, and clouds can reveal—if you only know how to look!
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The Books I Picked & Why
Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies
By
Mary T.S. Schaffer
Why this book?
The best travel writing allows us to explore a place vicariously and this book certainly does that. But it also gives a sense of what it is like to explore as a woman and on horseback, two things I cannot claim to have ever done. It is rich with insights into the nature of the land and people. And it is sensitive without being sentimental. Schaffer was a true pioneer and the book gives a sense she would have been good company too.
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In Patagonia
By
Bruce Chatwin
Why this book?
I've picked In Patagonia, his first book, but I can honestly recommend anything written by Chatwin. Long after his death in middle age, he remains one of the best in the world for balancing fine writing with a sense of place. We have all read those authors who can't help reveal that they think the places they visit ought to come second to their waxy words. And we've all read books where the journey is truly extraordinary but the writer is not up to the task of sharing it. Chatwin always finds that sweet spot where the writing elevates the places he visits, but never overrides them.
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Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent
By
Alexander von Humboldt
Why this book?
Humboldt is the Godfather of so many fascinating areas of natural history. His mind unravels mysteries for breakfast. The book is a great travel story in its own right, but this tale envelopes countless examples of groundbreaking discovery.
Personally, I find his work inspiring because he excelled at revealing how nature and place reflect each other. The plants and animals we encounter change with latitude, altitude, and a dozen other variables. This is the science that allows us to start making maps from plants and animals. We are all indebted to Humboldt and I feel it strongly.
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Along the Enchanted Way: A Story of Love and Life in Romania
By
William Blacker
Why this book?
A unique book. Read this and you'll find yourself in a disappearing world. Northern Romania eschewed the modern conveniences and less delicate touches of capitalism for most of the twentieth century. Blacker shares a life wholly dictated by the rhythms of nature. This is a world where the locals recognise someone visiting from another village at a distance, not by their face or their clothes, but by the horse they are riding.
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A Year in Provence
By
Peter Mayle
Why this book?
I love all of Bill Bryson's books, especially his travel literature. He retired recently, but he is still too well known for me to include his work here. Instead, I'm going for an old favourite in a similar genre. A Year in Provence was very well known in its day, 1989, so much so that waves of tourist fans forced the author to emigrate. But it's been a few years and it's possibly not so widely read now.
Mayle's writing is funny, economical and so readable. If you fancy the idea of spending a glutinous, hilarious time in rural Provence without moving or suffering any gastric consequences then this is the book for you. Mayle's fond telling brings a cast of eccentric local characters to vivid life. If you can turn a page without smiling or finish a chapter without laughing, you're made of sterner stuff than I. Mayle was a highly intelligent writer, so clever that he knew how and when to hide it.
