Winter: A Natural History

Patricia Morley is a professor of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University, an associate fellow of the Simone de Beauvoir
Institute, and author of Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

Most books of nature photography are beautiful. A smaller number have
valuable texts. Now and again one finds a book of this type that is set
apart from its fellows by the stunning beauty of its images and the
excellence of the writing. Winter belongs to this small group of
magnificent books to be treasured. Photographer Doug Sadler has written
a weekly nature column for the Peterborough Examiner for more than 30
years, during which time he has won the prestigious Kortright Award five
times. He is a former president of the Federation of Ontario
Naturalists, and the author of four previous books.

The introduction traces changes in attitudes to winter, and the growth
of new kinds of awareness. Sadler is a persuasive evangelist for the
kind of sensitivity and appreciation that can see beneath surface
simplicity to a “staggering” complexity. Photographs of leaves edged
in frost, ice crystals on rock, and trees in a flooded river help us to
see a winter world with new eyes.

Combining poetry and science, Sadler’s personal approach joins
esthetic to scientific insights as he explains sun-dogs, dehydration, or
the formation of crystals. The text also includes short essays and verse
by other writers such as Wilfrid Campbell, Robert Frost, and Henry David
Thoreau.

Seventy-three color photographs inspire reverence, even awe, and a
better understanding of a world we often take for granted. An
“environmental” book with a difference.