Malcolm J Ingham reflects on the move from wildlife ranger to writing.
After spending the vast majority of my
working life in the Ranger Service and being involved in conservation and
wildlife rehabilitation, retirement when it eventually arrived was a jumble of
emotions. One a feeling of relief and
escapism from my post of Head Ranger managing a large ranger service with its
multitude of Country Parks, Nature Reserves and Sites of Special Scientific
Interest (SSSI’s.) Even though I had been a Head Ranger / Wildlife Officer for
many years, a couple of years prior to retirement my brief had changed
dramatically from one of being very much hands on to a much more intense
managerial role with not only more staffing responsibilities but juggling
budgets, applying for grants and everything else that comes with overseeing the
day to day management of a ranger service.
The second emotion was one of sadness in
that my career was coming to an end, I had strived long and hard to become a
ranger and when I eventually achieved my goal my life changed beyond anything I
could have envisaged. Even from a
seasoned rangers perspective I had a dream job. Over the years I was involved
in caring for and rehabilitating many species of wildlife from badgers, foxes,
peregrine falcons, barn owls, swans and even a Scottish wildcat and a common
nighthawk with the latter being flown out to Belize by the RAF for release.
I had rescued a lanner falcon from an
Iranian ship and bobbed around in a rubber dingy trying to persuade a dolphin
to leave the Manchester Ship Canal not to mention my experiences with a beached
whale or collecting a grey seal and a European eagle owl from a police station plus
being involved in the production of wildlife themed TV programmes and working
alongside various well known celebrities of the time. I had lectured and given presentations from as
far afield as Inverness to the Isle of Wight on wildlife rehabilitation and
worked alongside the police, RSPCA and the National Wildlife Crime Unit
tackling and investigating incidents of wildlife crime with a particular
emphasis on badger digging and baiting.
But now it was over! What was I going to
do? My life had always revolved around wildlife and I couldn’t envisage a life
without it.
On a few occasions over the years people
had paused the question ‘when are you going to write a book?’ And at one point
I did actually get around to making an effort to put my many stories onto paper
but after a while I got out of the habit and filed a half completed manuscript
to a cardboard box and forgot about it.
That is until one day when my pal Mike
McCartney (formerly Mike McGear of the
1960’s 70’s Liverpool chart topping
trio the Scaffold) asked the question “how’s the book coming along?”
Obviously I had to admit that it wasn’t whereupon he gave me a kick up the
backside and offered to read the draft manuscript when finished.
By this time my wife and I had moved to
North Wales with a large, formal, landscaped, tiered garden and a patch of
woodland to keep us occupied which, from the gardens perspective at least, we
began to transform into a truly wildlife friendly haven.
In between tending
the garden, bird watching, walking and generally exploring I took Mike’s advice
and rooted out my dusty manuscript and re-read it, after which I binned it and
started again! Once reasonably happy with my endeavours I sent it off to Mike
who read it, made a few constructive recommendations and once again gave me the
proverbial kick up the back-side to crack on with it. To cut a long story short I eventually
received an email from Mandy inviting me
to submit a synopsis and a few sample chapters for her perusal the outcome of
which was that in April 2019 my first book ‘From Badgers to Nighthawks’ was published
by Beul-Aithris Publishing with of course a foreword from Mike! It was the
least he could do after all the chivvying and backside kicking and needless to
say he got a freebie copy.
Signed of course
by yours truly!
Despite all the
chivvying and endless hours spent at the computer not to mention the never ending
proof reading by my wife to see the finished product finally in print made
every second worthwhile. But what next? I now had the writing bug and needed to
feed my addiction. Could I write another book and if I did would it be
published?
I had so many
other stories to tell, not just from my past life as since moving to North
Wales I had been dragged out of retirement by the police and the RSPCA Special
Ops Unit to once again accompany them on warrant raids and to act as their prosecution
expert witness. I was also involved in monitoring badgers and otters plus many
other forms of wildlife and was acquiring some wonderful trail camera video
footage of previously unseen species interaction such as a dog otter leaping
out of the water to nip a badger on the backside!!
My material for
writing a sequel to ‘From Badgers to Nighthawks’ was accumulating at a pace and
as such began to draft a second manuscript and then Mandy paused the question,
“have you thought about a children’s book?” To be honest the thought hadn’t
crossed my mind but she had sowed a seed that slowly began to germinate into
what was to become my second book ‘The Tales of Old Billy Badger’ published in
December 2021 by Beul Aithris and beautifully illustrated by Mark
Hetherington. The idea was that it would
be aimed at eight years and upwards and although a fictional story based off
fact from my own observations it would also be educational. The badgers and the otters, Casper and Shadow,
aren’t merely figments of my imagination, they actually exist and roam the land
and river of Garth Farm.
The human
characters Mr Callum and Mr Harpur are real people albeit under different names
even Moggy the cat and Nelly the sheepdog are real.
But what of the
sequel to ‘From Badgers to Nighthawks?’ I’m working on it!!
