Nature Diary: One Eye, One Finger

‘As I step out of the conservatory facing North, supported by my pusher, the first that catches my eye is the dying Sycamore which escapes death every year by producing a healthy crop of leaves, but it looks so decrepit that surely it can’t pull that trick yet again.’—1 April, 2020
In his eighty-eighth year, John Boorman uses his time in lockdown to reflect on the splendour of the surrounding nature of County Wicklow. Coccooning with his daughter and son among the hills of Annamoe, Boorman chronicles his daily walks and observations of the trees on his estate, writing with heightened appreciation of the beauties of his eyrie using only one eye and one finger.
Poetry flows from his pen as he sits chairbound among his trees and flora: sycamores, limes, beech, oak, redwood, shrubs and flowers, birdsong and shifting skies are luminously recorded as the world falls silent. With illustrations by Susan Morley, this slim but meditative volume is a remarkable narrative by the creator of The Emerald Forest, Excalibur and Deliverance – a swansong like no other.

John Boorman, CBE, is an English filmmaker who is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Hell in the Pacific, Deliverance, Zardoz, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Excalibur, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama. He has directed 22 films and received five Academy Award nominations, twice for Best Director (for Deliverance and Hope and Glory). In 2004 Boorman received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement. Boorman is also the author of six books including Conclusions (Faber & Faber, 2020), Crime of Passion (Liberties Press, 2016) and Adventure of a Suburban Boy (Faber & Faber, 2003). He has lived in County Wicklow for nearly fifty years