B.B.’s novel “The Little Grey Men,” originally published in 1942, as it was the recipient of the Carnegie Medal that same year and was later adapted into a television series in 1975, is most likely to be his most popularly known amongst his many books. It recounts the story – as directly received from one with personal knowledge of it, as he tells it – of the last four gnomes in England who live inside an old oak tree beside Folly Brook in Warwickshire.
It is no secret that I have a particular interest in the history of the early modern period in England, which has the fascinating – to me, at least – intersection of old herbalist practices, folk healing, and alchemy with what were the beginnings of what became modern medicine, of folk understandings of the natural world with natural philosophy and later natural history.
It’s no secret that I have for years been deeply impressed by the writing and editorial taste of Melissa Harrison. From her quartet of seasonal nature-themed literature, to her novels – most recently the captivating as well as somewhat haunting “All Among the Barley” – to her recently published collection of of her “Nature Notebook” column from The Times titled “The Stubborn Light of Things” – which also shares the name of her superb 2020 podcast series that helped so many of us, myself included, to endure the mental and emotional strains of the CoVid-19 lockdowns, she has demonstrated over and again her remarkable creative talents.
It is not a common occurrence to see a work of fiction cited in this publication. I have nothing against it, mind you; one of my academic degrees is in English literature. It’s simply that I don’t often happen upon novels that are both well written and whose authors are well-versed in natural history, the history of science (including medicine), or a similarly related field of study.