Rosy’s parents lived in Brook, a village in the Isle of Wight, in the 1950s – it was a time of playing outside all day – adventures in the woods and fields surrounding old Brook House – moonlight walks – sandy sandwiches – learning to swim and playing hopscotch and beach cricket – all were such happy memories.

 

For so many years Rosy has had a fascination for 'The Back of the Wight' – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with two Sites of Special Scientific Interest and part of the UNESCO biosphere. She came across so many people with the same love of the landscape that she wanted to share their stories as she ran after them collecting more. Everyone she met had the same sense of joy and sense of belonging to that rare part of planet earth. 

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There are stories such as: 

The skies – where paragliders fly with the young sea eagles and spitfires roar over the island past the white chalk cliffs . . . 

The downs – where the blue butterflies flutter and Tennyson, the poet, strode for inspiration past ancient burial mounds . . . 

The farm – where the bull’s big feet enabled him to escape over the cattle grid to get to his girlfriends on the other side . . . 

The road – where gated farm tracks became a military road to protect England from French invasion . . .

The cliffs – where huge chalk cliffs were made millions of years ago from skeletons of billions of tiny creatures which died in warming seas, to the story of the naked lady who just avoided death by a falling cow . . . 

The beach – where families happily splash and build sandcastles lost to the tides – the night fisherman quietly waits, and dinosaurs foot casts and more fall out of the cliffs . . .

The sea – sometimes mirror-calm – sometimes wild and dangerous – where kite-surfers skim the waves over the undersea wrecks – the Freshwater independent lifeboat goes out to rescue and where, far out at sea, the thresher sharks roam . . . 

Where the earth's ancient geology is still moving – and re-wilding will spread the Ice Age landscape in years to come . . .

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© Copyright Rosy Burke 2021

 

OUT OF PRINT June 2024.