Spring is the Only Season
How it Works, What it Does and Why it Matters
Published on 13. March 2025
Book
Hardback
448 pages
978-1-5266-6737-3 (ISBN)
Description
'A book that filled me from first to last with a rapture as transcendent and thrilling as that which spring yearly provides ... I absolutely adored it!' STEPHEN FRY
'As dynamic and ebullient as the season it celebrates ... There is no one I'd rather spring into spring with than Simon Barnes' KATE HUMBLE
'An endlessly illuminating love letter to the most beguiling of the seasons' LEE SCHOFIELD, author of the award-winning Wild Fell
Spring is the time of renewal and rebirth, a celebration of the resilience of life. As the year turns, animals and plants that have struggled to survive the winter find new hope and create the next generation. The season has inspired some of humanity's greatest art and many of its most significant religious festivals.
Now, in Spring is the Only Season, Simon Barnes provides a fresh and compelling look at this period of the year. He explains the science of the seasons, which are caused by the planet's 23.5 degree tilt; he also highlights the music, the paintings and the poetry that have tried to capture it. Packed with fascinating insights, remarkable facts and key stories, the book is a vivid and multi-faceted portrait of spring.
However, while the Earth will continue to spin on its tilting axis, he reveals how our impact on the planet is beginning to destroy the natural course of the seasons, and that elements of the beloved spring - from migrating birds to emerging butterflies - are endangered by climate change. But it's not too late. Not yet. We can still make a difference and so continue to enjoy the pleasures of spring.
'As dynamic and ebullient as the season it celebrates ... There is no one I'd rather spring into spring with than Simon Barnes' KATE HUMBLE
'An endlessly illuminating love letter to the most beguiling of the seasons' LEE SCHOFIELD, author of the award-winning Wild Fell
Spring is the time of renewal and rebirth, a celebration of the resilience of life. As the year turns, animals and plants that have struggled to survive the winter find new hope and create the next generation. The season has inspired some of humanity's greatest art and many of its most significant religious festivals.
Now, in Spring is the Only Season, Simon Barnes provides a fresh and compelling look at this period of the year. He explains the science of the seasons, which are caused by the planet's 23.5 degree tilt; he also highlights the music, the paintings and the poetry that have tried to capture it. Packed with fascinating insights, remarkable facts and key stories, the book is a vivid and multi-faceted portrait of spring.
However, while the Earth will continue to spin on its tilting axis, he reveals how our impact on the planet is beginning to destroy the natural course of the seasons, and that elements of the beloved spring - from migrating birds to emerging butterflies - are endangered by climate change. But it's not too late. Not yet. We can still make a difference and so continue to enjoy the pleasures of spring.
Reviews / Votes
Simon Barnes has written a book that filled me from first to last with a rapture as transcendent and thrilling as that which spring yearly provides. He describes the season's prodigious generosity, power and reach with marvellous clarity and passion. Like all great writing on nature - all great writing on any subject in fact - Barnes makes you look and listen with new eyes and ears. Never have I read a book that so impelled me to get out and pay attention to great creating nature in all its force and splendour ... I cannot think of anyone who won't be entranced and grateful that this book exists. Reading it is like being taken for a glorious nature walk by a hugely knowledgeable and enthusiastic friend. Truly, I absolutely adored it! -- Stephen Fry As dynamic and ebullient as the season it celebrates ... There is no one I'd rather spring into spring with than Simon Barnes -- Kate Humble With his trademark blend of wit, fascination and knowledge, Simon Barnes has written an endlessly illuminating love letter to the most beguiling of the seasons. A book to make sun-worshipping pagans of us all -- Lee Schofield, author of WILD FELL An enjoyable and compelling read. Spring is undoubtedly the most important season. Barnes takes us through the many aspects of spring, from religion, poetry, agriculture and of course the song. He broadens our understanding of these magical moments, culminating in their importance. A fascinating and insightful book that shows why we need to maintain life's natural cycles. -- Jake Fiennes, author of LAND HEALER Barnes weaves together a tapestry of delights in this biography of the season of spring, and what it means to the planet and to human society - from migration to sports to poetry to climate change. Full of fascinating insights, Spring is the Only Season is a book you'll relish being carried along by, whatever the time of year -- Chantal Lyons, author of GROUNDBREAKERS Ultimately, this vivid portrait encourages us to contemplate the ever-shifting interplay between humanity and the natural world * Countryside * [Barnes] writes conversationally, but with passion, about the "only" season as his title has it. It's a book that's grand in scale - it opens 4.6 billion years ago, with the formation of the earth - and furious in energy. With Barnes as a guide we rocket across the canvas, from butterflies and moths to Salvador Dali's surrealist The First Days of Spring, via TS Eliot, mythology and Ramadan. This frenetic approach pays dividends * London Standard * In his paean to the season, Barnes looks at spring not just from the perspective of animals and of insects but of religions, artists and sports too ... even as he explains the science of spring, breezily and lucidly, Barnes can't suppress the enthusiasm and wonder in his tone * New Statesman * Simon Barnes is another "Springophile", but offers a much more detailed examination of why these few weeks are so important both to him and to all of us who live in temperate latitudes... The default note in this book may well be joy, but an all-inclusive approach allows him to ask whether "spring is being destroyed as we watch" -- Mark Cocker * Country Life * In Spring is the Only Season, Simon Barnes provides an illuminating look at this period of the year as he tries to understand "what spring has always been, how it has shaped us and what it will become in a changing world" -- Elizabeth Wainwright * Geographical * Packed with fascinating insights, remarkable facts and key stories, the book is a vivid and multi-faceted portrait of spring * Manx Independent * Fascinating... The sections on birds, butterflies and bees brim with extraordinary observations and facts...but his explorations of art and science are equally thought-provoking -- Anthony Gardner * Tablet * A wonderfully entertaining discussion of the influence that plants and creatures of all stripes have had on art, literature, mythology and music for centuries ... A real treasure of a book -- Claire Looby * Irish Times * Barnes walks the reader jovially through the high spots of the season, arranged by theme: botanical spring, religious festivals, spring in literature, sporting events and so on -- Richard Smyth * TLS *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 147 mm
Width: 224 mm
Thickness: 42 mm
Weight
562 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-6737-3 (9781526667373)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2025
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€10.49
Available for download
E-Book
03/2025
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€10.49
Available for download
Person
Simon Barnes is a writer and journalist who was the chief sportswriter and wildlife columnist for The Times until 2014, having worked for the paper for 30 years. He is the author of many wild volumes, including the bestselling Bad Birdwatcher trilogy, Rewild Yourself and, most recently, How to be a Bad Botanist. He is a trustee of Conservation South Luangwa and patron of Save the Rhino. In 2014, he was awarded the Rothschild Medal for services to conservation. He lives in Norfolk with his family, where he manages several acres for wildlife.