The short version 

Bringing Back the Beavers is a wonderful insight into the fight going on behind the beaver reintroduction headlines in the UK. Derek Gow has devoted his life to this cause and will take you with him on his personal journey. The writing is not the result of years of subtle scientific training nor does it have the finesse of a fiction writer and for that it feels raw and refreshing. This book gives you a detailed look into the mind of Derek Gow. I did not always agree with him, in fact sometimes I got down right annoyed with his righteousness but I will forever be grateful for his dedicated work.  

The long version 

As always you take assumptions into a book. Coming into this book I was broadly supportive of beaver reintroduction, to the point that I would have happily signed a petition but did not know the subtleties of the argument. I thought it would be a delightful tale of how the impact of beavers was researched, the case for their reintroduction made paving the way for their successful reintroduction. How wrong I was. I wasn’t exactly naive, I expected a few setbacks, false starts etc, but as Derek Gow shows in this book it was lot more complicated than that. Therefore, it is quite fitting that my feelings and opinions about this book are much more complicated than I expected. 

 It starts off with a history of the beavers in the UK, and I felt like I was scouring the parish records alongside Gow looking for evidence. Then we move onto Gow’s own history highlighting that he is not one of the elite, highly-educated or the establishment but he is from a very rural background. Let’s put it this way, when I was growing up all I could persuade my parents to get me was a hamster whereas Gow was busy breeding sheep. 

After this, Gow hits his stride, he reaches beavers. His passion for beavers is woven throughout his entire life. From this moment you feel his anger and annoyance. It was a fantastic insight into his mind but unlike Gow I am not jaded from the fight so found the tone somewhat off-putting. He imbues every sentence with the righteousness of his cause. He is allowed to, it is his book after all, but I would have like to be convinced first. 

The book is generally written in a chronological order, without actually placing any events in a defined time period making it hard to appreciate the length of time that must have passed durring the book. However there is always time for a diversion, some of which a good, some informative and are just supposed to be amusing. Many have an overture of people are idiots. This is not just confined to the landowners, scientists and bureaucrats as he is also happy to tell stories where he is the idiot. I imagine he is good at telling anecdotes in person, a fair few of them are funny and he has an amusing way of describing people that makes them seem like caricatures a street artist would draw.  

So on to my issues with the book, Gow is a common-sense man. He knows he is right and that is all that matters. So often his attitude towards beaver release boarders on the same attitude that landed gentry have, my land, my rules, and hatful of oversight. I am not saying he didn’t have a valid cause or reason but it just came across the same way. The same way it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when he voices distain for scientific researchers that are trying to prove his point that beaver reintroduction would benefit the environment. This riles me because later in the book you find out that the North American Beaver was reintroduced into Norway before they realised that the Eurasian Beaver was a different species. Now the two can only be distinguished through blood analysis. Unfortunately, this is only mentioned to ridicule oversight measures restricting beaver importation to certain countries of origin. Surely there was someone with just such a strong conviction that beavers are good for the environment behind the release of North American Beavers into Norway? 

Anyway those are my major gripes with this book, Gow didn’t do enough to convince me of the uselessness of the oversight mechanisms at the beginning of the book so I remained sceptical. However, by the end I feel his heartache, so many tried, failed, and sabotaged (by people with paperwork) attempts at reintroduction. I am somewhat jaded from the fight, and I scoff at further restrictions on beavers. How could these wonderful, feisty, essential creatures have to die for no reason? All because a pencil pusher didn’t realise that you can’t just keep an animal in a box forever and expect it to stay healthy? Why was the Scottish site for beaver introduction chosen to be so difficult for beavers to survive in? And when they did, they were killed for their efforts? See I am the one whose writing is filled with the anger and annoyance now. 

Overall, this was a fascinating insight into the personality that can persevere against all the odds working towards the singular goal of beaver reintroduction. I was glad of my time spent in Gow mind, seeing things through his perspective, but I am also glad to be back in my own mind with my own outlook on life. We may be very different people but I know the fight for beavers to be properly introduced is not over and I am glad we have people like Derek Gow are fighting this fight for us. In the future I will keep a closer eye on how the reintroductions are going and that will all be down to reading this book.  

Judging a Book by its Cover 

The best bit of the review. Ignore everything inside the book and focus on how it will look on the book shelf.  

The cover I had has Bringing Back the Beaver emblazoned in big yellow letters on the back of a beaver which is on some leaves. I like way the writing works across the front of the book, to me it evokes the sense of a placard, people or beavers marching for their freedom, their rights to exist in this country. However, I am not so keen on the actual beaver, the way it is looking away from the reader makes it seem snooty. This may be reflective of the fact that beavers are elusive and not easily understood. 

On the whole I think it does a good job in reflecting the book inside but I would have liked a more refined image of a beaver. As the combination of the writing and the drawing makes the book feel less mature. This could easily be a children’s book about an adventure to find a beaver, seeking out the lost almost mythical beavers that once inhabited this country. Now that is another book I would read.