Mark Cocker - The Poetry of Fact

The Poetry of Fact

All of Cocker‘s subsequent work has focused on aspects of natural history. The best known is the epic Birds Britannica, a work of nature study, rich with literary, historical and cultural references. It was based on Flora Britannica by the acclaimed nature writer Richard Mabey, who initiated its sister volume. However Mabey’s ill health meant that it was written entirely by Cocker. As Philip Marsden puts it:

"In the past, birds animated long journeys to market, days of trudge at trawl or plough. Their habits bred anthropomorphisms, superstitions and nicknames. These in themselves provide an extraordinary glimpse into the imaginative range of our own species. Now that we drive everywhere, now that fishermen and farmers are growing as scarce as marsh warblers, we see birds differently. Birds Britannica shows that this need not be seen as something artificial or contrived but as part of a long and ever-shifting relationship, an indicator of our own place in nature."

Cocker's work on the ubiquitous crow is in similar spirit: a rare combination of natural history and Cultural anthropology. Crow Country is Cocker’s most successful book to date, receiving widespread critical acclaim. More than simply a long term study of a 'common bird', Crow Country represents a fusion of acute natural historical observations with fine writing, which Cocker defines as the poetry of fact. Of Crow Country, Cocker said:

"I would say there's a large body of writing on nature that is inaccurate, that sentimentalises nature, interpreting nature in a way that suits the writer...The facts are subjugated by the writer's feelings. But my writing is in the poetry of fact. This is not a shallow piece of study. I have found almost every paper on the subject in the English language."

The importance of being 'true' to the nature of the subject is apparent, but so too is his desire to discover the wealth of cultural significance attached to it. Like the natural detective's search for the perpetrator, Cocker's investigations are laden with significance. Reminiscent of an earlier age of scientific investigation, the 'whole picture' perspective being not unlike that of Francis Bacon who wrote in a similar vein:

"Men have sought to make a world from their own conception and to draw from their own minds all the material which they employed, but if, instead of doing so, they had consulted experience and observation, they would have the facts and not opinions to reason about, and might have ultimately arrived at the knowledge of the laws which govern the natural world."

This unique combination of natural scientist, environmentalist and cultural anthropologist is most evident in his latest project Birds and People.