The 21st of March marks the beginning of spring, with dew on the grass and the robin announcing the arrival of the first primroses. This day also opens the Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty, a book about the change inherent in life at every moment of the four seasons.  

From the leafy green countryside of Northern Ireland and from the viewpoint of a young man with autism, the reader progresses through the course of a year via chronicles that convey the reality of living with an acute affinity with nature in a world that increasingly neglects it.

Dara McAnulty is one member of a family of five, of whom four are non-neurotypical: his father is the only one without autism. This is important to readers, as they are about to experience a book written from a unique perspective. “The outpourings on these pages express my connection with wildlife, try to explain the way I see the world, and describe how we weather the storms as a family”. With his heart in his hand and his voice at its most powerful, in Diary of a Young Naturalist McAnulty invites us to see the world through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old young man with an incredible commitment to nature and conservation.

At the time of writing this book, its writer is in the process of moving from his home in County Fermanagh to a new life in County Down, on the other side of Northern Ireland. This change, together with the change inherent in adolescence, and the change which is part of the natural course of the four seasons, is the thread weaving the stories that this young author tells daily. His name means ‘oak’ in Irish, and almost premonitorily, his strength accompanies the reader on a journey that ranges through a wealth of different emotions, from tenderness, admiration, and empathy, to courage, melancholy, and impotence. With every word, the author shows us how nature is a beacon in a sea that is increasingly challenging for the coming generations.

The book journeys through the passing of a year in the form of daily fragments – of various lengths – in which the author takes the reader to the most intimate and sincere part of his thought. The content is based on three pillars. The greatest of all is nature and biodiversity, and the young man’s encounters with moments of wonder and confusion and, often, outrage and concern. Through his detailed descriptions, the author turns nature into a central and dynamic character in his narrative. For him, the environment is not only the milieu that surrounds him, but an integral part of his identity and emotional well-being. In several instances, it even becomes the means by which he manages to connect with others and feel a sense of belonging. In it, McAnulty finds inspiration and purpose, turning his reflections into activism for environmental protection.

Another key theme is youth and self-identity in the face of the world around us, and how these are inseparable from each other. McAnulty starts to see his connection with nature as a self-concept and feels the responsibility of using his age not as a limitation, but as a driving force in achieving greater involvement among young people in slowing down climate change. Through his writings, as well as his occasional participation in conferences on environmental- ism and climate activism, McAnulty manages to interact directly with a young audience whose members can identify with him and his fight, and come to view him as a role model.

Finally, the book focuses on a crucial period in the author’s life: the nexus between childhood and adulthood. Therefore, in addition to the physical and emotional changes that typically come with age, Diary of a Young Naturalist is a testimony to personal growth that, hand in hand with intimate reflections and poetic descriptions, manages to show a frank portrait of the author’s experiences. Over the course of the year, readers can observe how his way of narrating events matures, through literary devices such as analogies and metaphors that are unusual for someone of his age.

For all these reasons, although it belongs to the diaries genre, this book is close to environmental literature, also known as naturalism and  transcendentalism, if we look at the subject matter and focus of the narrative. These two movements envelop the book in such a way that the story of its young author is lived through his relationship with nature. McAnulty’s keen observations of the natural world and his detailed descriptions of wildlife are in keeping with the spirit of naturalism, even reflecting the scientific curiosity and attention to detail characteristic of naturalist writers such as John Muir and Henry David Thoreau.

Moreover, also featuring in McAnulty’s writing is the transcendentalist belief in the interconnectedness of all living things and the importance of each person’s individual experi- ences with nature. And the fact is that nature changes at a similar pace to humans, although it does so with seasonal rhythms and under its own terms of circularity. A myriad of similarities exists between flora and the passage of time on a woman’s skin, and between fauna and a man’s instincts, and vice versa. However, what really separates us is that humans are born and die only once, while nature does so every 365 days. We have a life, and the way we live can affect the vital development of biodiversity which, almost automatically, affects the development of our own. In the words of McAnulty: “I am not like these birds, but neither am I separate from them”.

Our relationship with the  environment around us is unbreakable and inseparable, and therefore we must improve the way we, as humanity, interact with it. “I keep visualising time as a length of string, with a flame burning at one end that represents the present, where we can act and be most alive. The ashes are the past, the intact string is the future. The string splits every time something happens. The dead are ashes; they still exist and never leave us. I can feel the string descending, still blazing in parts, but mostly it is crisp  
and brown and stretched out ahead.” Through such prominent metaphors as this, McAnulty embodies the call for change and addresses, above all, young people and those who will have the greatest influence in preventing the decline towards an uninhabitable world as a result of climate change. In other words, it is young people who have the power to keep that string from breaking.

The authenticity of McAnulty’s voice is the greatest strength of this book. A still youthful tone carries upon itself the weight of his concern for the future of our world and, admirably, turns the description of something banal into a transcendental act. In his own words: “I have the heart of a naturalist, the head of a would-be scientist, and the bones of someone already wearied by the apathy and destruction wielded against the natural world”. McAnulty manages to position the reader in an almost palpable world through descriptions that activate the five senses, and he draws attention not only to the present but to the past of each one. To put it another way, one can’t help but remember the innocence one had when young, and one’s deep admiration for something as simple as the flight of a butterfly or the colour of the foliage in October.

Despite the author’s maturity for his young age, it is true that in his chronicles there is a prevailing tendency to touch on complex environmental issues superficially. When he describes deforestation, he does so with undeniable passion, but his voice focuses on melancholy and emotional loss rather than its systemic causes and practical solutions. Thus, it is an activism that appeals to the emotions rather than action based on the root of the problem. In the same vein, when mentioning the loss of biodiversity, his argument is blurred in the aesthetic impact of the landscape and what this loss means visually, and while the reader empathizes with the argument, McAnulty misses the opportunity to protest against unsustainable government policies and corporate practices, or the lack of public awareness resulting in this global problem.

Despite this, there are a number of points to be remembered. To begin with, the book’s very nature as a diary sets the narrative tone as a personal reflection on the part of the writer. Moreover, these are descriptions from someone who, due to his circumstances, has an extremely acute sensitivity to sensory stimuli. He describes one particular overwhelming instant thus: “Bright colours cause a kind of pain, a physical assault to the senses. Noise can be unbearable. Natural sounds are easier to process”. This is why his way of narrating often delves into how what is happening around him makes him feel, and the way in which his mood and life is altered by  it all. In his emotional appeal, McAnulty manages to ensure that those who read his notes are not unmoved, feeling the need to observe – and respect – nature a little more than they did before. For him, nature is both a mirror and a teacher: “I’m surrounded by five or six fly agaric mushrooms. Like them, I have burst open. I feel more resilient, more  powerful. [...] I can’t just love the natural world. I have to raise my voice even louder to help it. It is my duty, the duty of all of us, to support and protect nature. Our life support system, our interconnectedness, our interdependence”.

Diary of a Young Naturalist is, in conclusion, a testimony to the capacity of young people to harbour a deep complicity with nature. Through everyday, personal, and heartfelt stories, McAnulty shows that the voice of each and every one of us is necessary to achieve change, and that it is a collective, empowered, and universal struggle to prevent the world from becoming what we fear most. Also following the seasons of the author’s life, one is drawn towards one’s own introspection, to observe how the environment reflects, and at times contradicts, one’s own emotions and experiences. After finishing the book, one can’t help but feel the urge to try to live in a more intentional and conscious way, venerating every moment of change as a unique moment in each person’s life.