Thank you, Phil Gates, for nearly 40 years of country diaries | Letters
Jim McManners says Phil’s columns have inspired his teaching, while Ann MacAskill says she intends to follow his marvelling methodI was with great sadness that I read that Phil Gates’s country...
By Guardian Staff · The Guardian Opinion
Jim McManners says Phil’s columns have inspired his teaching, while Ann MacAskill says she intends to follow his marvelling method I was with great sadness that I read that Phil Gates’s country diary piece was to be his last ( Country diary: A lesson from my final diary after nearly 40 years – keep looking closely, 19 September ). It has become my habit to check the column as soon as I get my hands on the paper to see if it was a “Phil Gates diary day”, then to savour it. This is partly, perhaps, because his diaries are from my own county, but mainly because I have never failed to learn something new and interesting about some overlooked or unspectacular species in the natural world, despite this being my subject. Continue reading...