In his eighty-eighth year, John Boorman uses his time in lockdown to create a nature diary 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 nature diary is a remarkable narrative by the creator of The Emerald Forest, Excalibur and Deliverance – a swansong like no other.

‘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

PRAISE FOR JOHN BOORMAN’S NATURE DIARY: ONE EYE, ONE FINGER

‘Reading each entry, a meditative calm descends, and I can almost feel the bark of the twin oak he so lovingly strokes when he visits it, as if greeting an old friend, before sitting on the bench beneath to drift in and out of ruminations and dreaming’ BOOKS IRELAND

Amongst nature: Illustrating John Boorman’s lockdown diary – Susan Morley drew on memory and on Kerry’s flora to illustrate her old neighbour’s book IRISH TIMES interview

This emerald forest: John Boorman wilding the world SUNDAY INDEPENDENT interview

‘Delicate, insightful, rich and meditative’ HILARY WHITE, SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

‘A celebration of trees, wildlife and the riches to be found in the natural world’ SUNDAY BUSINESS POST

Return to the Woods THE GLOSS feature

‘This is Boorman’s expression of gratitude for the inspiration and comfort he has found in the natural world’ RTÉ CULTURE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Boorman, CBE, is an English filmmaker who is best known for his feature films. These include 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 from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Boorman is also the author of six books including Conclusions (Faber & Faber, 2020), Adventure of a Suburban Boy (Faber & Faber, 2003), and Crime of Passion (Liberties Press, 2016). He has lived in County Wicklow for nearly fifty years.