Seasons in the South: A Tasmanian naturalist's journey of discovery – and recovery – Simon Grove
Seasons in the South: A Tasmanian naturalist's journey of discovery – and recovery
In this wide-ranging and beautifully illustrated book, Simon sets out to give voice to the unique and often quirky creatures and their special natural environments that imbue Lutruwita/Tasmania with its distinctive aura of otherness and of Deep Time. The book features 80 seasonally themed vignettes, arranged in 12 monthly chapters. Written with love, grace and humour, each vignette invites readers to accompany Simon as he explores some special part of this wonderful island, from its loftiest peaks and primordial forests to its wild and varied coastline and beyond, drawing on deep knowledge born of a lifelong interest in the natural world. Along the way, Simon delves into natural phenomena such as tides, phosphorescence, rainbows and auroras, which are such prominent features of the great Tasmanian outdoors. Woven into the narrative is Simon’s own journey of discovery spanning his two-and-a-half decades in Tasmania – a journey punctuated by life-threatening illness, as he relates in an ‘Interlude’ chapter. Out of his harrowing experience emerges Simon’s conviction, ably expressed in his writing, that ready access to nature is pivotal for our mental wellbeing and comprises yet another reason to cherish and nurture what we still have in relative plenty here in Tasmania.
About the author
Simon Grove hails from England but has lived and worked on five continents. A lifelong naturalist, his career path has long focused on nature conservation and on invertebrates (dubbed ‘the little creatures that run the world’). After completing his forest insect ecology doctorate in the wet tropics of North Queensland, he moved to Tasmania in 2001 with his young family to work as a conservation biologist in forestry, a research position which he held for over a decade. For the past 12 years, he has worked as Senior Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart – a position which, in the course of maintaining, building, interpreting and exhibiting the State Collections, offers endless possibilities for ongoing learning and engagement with Tasmanian nature. Simon is widely published in the fields of Tasmanian natural history and ecology in journals, magazines, newsletters and online. He authored and published The Seashells of Tasmania: A Comprehensive Guide, which is now into its second reprinting of its second edition. Simon regularly chats about Tasmanian invertebrates on local radio, and in 2019 was awarded the Australian Natural History Medallion – the ‘Nobel Prize for Australian naturalists’.