I should declare an interest: parts of this book are perfectly placed to pull at my personal heartstrings. I’ve long known that Macfarlane lives just a few streets away from me in south Cambridge — and Is a River Alive? starts by taking us to the tiny “Nine Wells” local nature reserve on the outskirts of Cambridge, a place I know and love. It’s a spot where beautiful, sparkling clear water springs out of the base of a chalk escarpment and is the start of a river. At least, that’s what has been happening for 12,000 years but, alas, because of over-abstraction, those nine wells often run dry for large parts of the year. For me, Macfarlane’s description of his young son seeing the dried up pools and asking, “Has the water died?” is heartbreaking.
