Beyond Sing the Woods

BEYOND SING THE WOODS, though set in Canada, moves from the United States, where the author was born, to England, Europe and then to South Africa in pursuit of his work as a student of English literature and then university professor. He has now come to rest in the South Island of New Zealand. He is more than a hunter and angler: he is a poet and a philosopher, sensitively aware not only of the beautiful landscapes, and the splendours of their dusks and dawns, but also of the transience of all he sees. There is in his writing a theme of quickly passing time and the transience of man's brief span. A preoccupation with rapidly passing time and the halcyon memories of youth are a common thread in his writing. What makes his writing so evocative, and so worth returning to, is the combination of nostalgia and the increasing awareness of the closing shadows. Anyone with a passion for fishing and hunting, and with a love of nature will find this book compulsive reading.