What Da Cover Says: A heartfelt ode to the natural world, The Calm Place is Jackie Kirkham’s story of finding meaning in the simplest of places. As the nation enters lockdown, Jackie chronicles a year observing and discovering the tiny ecosystem of her Scottish garden as she relearns how to appreciate and cherish the plants and animals that share her space. From scheming pigeons to ninja slugs, exuberant flowers to acrobatic sparrows, she finds abundance and wonder in the ordinary. Her reflections offer a profound reminder of the resilience and beauty of life, even in the face of adversity. The Calm Place captures a moment when everyday life was shattered and so many of us reconsidered our relationship with nature. Rediscovering the natural world amidst the realities of modern life, it invites the reader to slow down and find delight in simple solace, connection and hope. What I says: This is not your ordinary nature book, I have read many books on nature and they are always crammed with amazing facts, discoveries and the luckiest writers ever to have witnessed the things they write about. The Calm Place is not one of those books, instead it feels like this book is about me…sat in my garden watching the natural world do it’s thing, struggling to identify a bird from it’s call or it’s shape as it whizzes by or being unsure what to do with the plants and always second guessing when to prune them and being proud when they somehow survive my “attention”. There are so many episodes in this book that had me smiling, the aggressive walk of a pigeon as it eyes you up and sees how close it can get before you move, hours spent watching bees working over some flowers and seeing a plant come to life in the spring, bloom in summer and go back into itself at the end of the year. The writing is superb, so many things get repeated but as each month arrives you witness the subtle changes and it feels like a unique event. Kirkham describes her plants well, I don’t have any of these in my garden and neither have I heard of them but from her description of a Hebe I felt I knew what plant it was and from googling I was spot on. Kirkham states at the start of the book that she only has a tiny patch of garden but that’s not the impression I got, it feels like a huge sprawling land full of life, I was thinking at the beginning that a map of the garden should have been included but by the end I felt no…like the Ivy let my imagination go crazy instead. The backdrop of the book was set during 2020, filled with commentary on COVID, the muppets in charge of the decisions and the US election. Again Kirkham’s opinions matched mine, it’s rather scary how much she was in my head. I have enjoyed this book and reading about somebody whose soul seems to be in line with mine has made me feel included and I’ll forever have a soft spot for it.