CULTURE CLUB
A Cambridge MEET AJAY TEGALA AND UNEARTH HIS JOURNEY BEHIND WRITING THE UNIQUE LIFE OF A RANGER: SEASONS OF CHANGE AT BLAKENEY POINT Writer’s Diary
I wanted it to be about Blakeney, the wildlife and the teamwork, because that’s so important. It’s been a reserve for over 100 years. I had to talk about the history of the wildlife, the context of its fragility and decline, the importance of protecting it. I hoped to get that message across: that wildlife should be enjoyed and appreciated, but not disturbed. In nature writing, there’s the health and wellbeing aspect, which is so important. I tried to emulate some lovely, lyrical books that I’m reading now. There are serious climate concerns as well. I was aware of these different angles, and wanted to make it my own, predominantly about the fun and behind-the-scenes of what it’s like being a ranger. The job has many different elements; sometimes we’re rooting for certain species that are in decline, but then having to manage others and control those to strike a balance. It’s complex. I love the fact that you’ve got time when writing, compared to a chat where you’ve got one chance. You start saying a sentence and you’ve got to follow through, even if it didn’t start as well as you wanted. So many times, I get asked, what’s it like being on Blakeney Point? The joy of writing was being able to take the time to research things, revisit and have time to nourish it and make it as good as I could. It’s quite intense living out there. I’m pleased I did a few years and then gave somebody else the opportunity. Writing made me question, did we do the right things at the right time? It helps to explore everything and be open about the management challenges we faced.
When I was working on Blakeney Point, I was having a wonderful time seeing great wildlife, meeting all these real characters, and thought, there’s got to be a book about this one day. It was sort of a dream back then, nearly ten years ago. Over the years, I wrote diary entries, learned and researched things. Then, it was the lockdown in 2020 that provided time to sit down and think, right, let’s make this a reality. I was still working more or less full- time because we have grazing livestock on the reserve at Wicken Fen. That was an eerie experience, seeing a reserve with no people for three months. I had a few holidays where I couldn’t do much. We have a caravan on my in-laws’ farm and I would go and write in there for an hour in the morning before going to work. I grew up in the Fens, just outside of Cambridgeshire. I’ve spent most of my life in East Anglia and I love the sky, especially at this time of year – sunsets, sunrises. They’re wonderful here because of the flat landscape and big skies; winter mornings on the Fens, when you get a slight frost and a mist; the wildfowl calling in the distance that you can’t even see. Working at Wicken Fen, it’s learning about the Fens pre-drainage and trying to reclaim back some of that lost landscape. It’s about the wind through the reeds in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, the wonderful birds I love that are slowly increasing because we’re creating more space for them. It’s a wonderful place for migration as well. On the north coast, you see birds and insects arriving that have just crossed the North Sea. It’s a place of arrival and departure throughout the year.
Wildlife writing is part of my job as a ranger. It’s all about engaging people with wildlife, be it face to face or through writing blogs. When I think about the Norfolk coast, I always contemplate the changing seasons. It made sense to structure the book through that because the wildlife changes – you’ve got the birds’ breeding season in the spring; then autumn migration where all the winter wildfowl come in; then in winter, the seals. So I thought about changing seasons and then also through time, my experience, because I could describe the place as I first saw it. CALL OF THE WILD Ajay Tegala’s memoir gives fascinating insight into the day-to-day business of a wildlife ranger on Norfolk’s northern coastline
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK DECEMBER 2022 37
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