Silent Spring

For a few months now I have been trying to work out where to shelve a book called Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson. It is in the Archives because the introduction is written by Lord Shackleton, the son of OA Sir Ernest Shackleton, but not an OA himself. So I was intrigued when listening to Open Book on Radio 4, which last week came from the Hay Festival, to hear that it is regarded by most people as the first environmental book. Carson's controversial book, and her legacy were discussed by Rosie Boycott, author of Our Farm: A Year in the Life of a Smallholding and Mariella Frostrup.

The book was chosen for discussion because May 2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rachel Carson. She battled a place for herself in the male dominated world of marine biology and zoology. In Silent Spring, published in 1962, she was the first person to make the fundamental connection between pesticides sprayed onto crops and the damage caused to wildlife. She was attacked in the press and by chemical companies including Monsanto. It was John F Kennedy who recognised the book for what it was, which no doubt helped it to sell 500,000 copies. Rosie Boycott admitted that the writing is certainly not as lyrical as some of the science books that have appeared since but it is still worth reading.

You can borrow the copy from the Archives, it is also published by Penguin and you can listen to the discussion at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/openbook/ram/openbook.ram

The discussion does not start until 22:30 minutes into the programme.