In November 2017 I went to a conference, Medicine Unboxed, where I was lucky enough to hear the author David Mitchell (of Cloud Atlas fame) speak about his life and writing. One reminiscence made me prick up my ears: he recalled that at the age of (I think) nine, he was inspired to write his first story – about otters – after reading Richard Adams’s 1972 novel Watership Down.
The reason this perked me up at the end of a fascinating but exhausting day was that Richard Adams was a friend of Ronald Lockley. Lockley’s 1964 book The Private Life of the Rabbit inspired Watership Down, and Adams later introduced Lockley as a character in his 1977 novel The Plague Dogs. Given these connections – the factual inspiring the fictional – it was particularly interesting to hear Mitchell talk about the interconnectedness of stories. Anyone familiar with Cloud Atlas or Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten, will recall how the different narratives interweave: as Mitchell said on that day at the conference, this is how life itself works.
So I begin to trace a path, a narrative that leads from David Mitchell, to Richard Adams, to Ronald Lockley, to… me. What part do I have to play in this interweaving of life stories?
The date on which my own segment of this narrative begins is 20 October 2016. A friend has asked on Facebook, ‘Anyone fancy coming with me to Skokholm Island in July next year?’ and I have said, ‘Yes!’
Thus begin nine months of planning – booking accommodation, organising transport, shopping for food and other necessities, checking up on the Skokholm quarantine guidelines (pack your bags in a rodent-free area; store luggage sealed; open bags cannot be brought to the island) – until 14 July 2017, when three intrepid explorers embark on a boat from Martin’s Haven in Pembrokeshire, setting sail for Skokholm.
Taking the boat to Skokholm
The island of Skokholm was home to Ronald Lockley from 1927, when he took out a 21-year lease on it (the 21 years was not to be, as the island was commandeered for military usage at the outbreak of the Second World War). At first alone, and later accompanied by his wife Doris and daughter Ann, he led a life that many of us today can only dream of: a life chronicled in his books Dream Island (1930) and Island Days (1934).
Lockley describes in charming detail the different stages of his adventure: his initial discovery of the island; his purchasing of a boat and experiences on the water; the abundance of wildlife (in particular birds); his rebuilding of the ruined island dwellings to make a new home; and the development of a self-sufficient smallholding, where activities include the catching of rabbits to sell, the rearing of goats for milk and hens for eggs, and the growing of vegetables.
View from the old farmhouse, now converted into visitor accommodation
During his years on Skokholm – and, indeed, this was one of his incentives for living there – Lockley spent a significant amount of time observing and studying the large migratory bird population on the island. He established the first British bird observatory there in 1933, and carried out detailed research into the habits of a variety of seabirds including Manx shearwaters, puffins, storm petrels, gulls and gannets. He later became a prolific writer of books and articles on a range of naturalistic topics, and the research he began on Skokholm continues there to this day.
Now fast-forward to this day – and enter the three intrepid explorers!
We arrived on Skokholm, along with a boatload of other visitors, to be welcomed by the wardens and resident volunteers. After a hot drink and an introduction to the living quarters, we were taken on a walk around the island, to orient ourselves and get started on seeing the wildlife. Skokholm is not large – only ~1 mile long and ~0.5 miles wide – but there is an enormous amount to see, especially if you are a wildlife expert or photographer (or both). I, however, had not travelled there out of a specific desire to see wildlife; rather, I wanted to experience the off-grid living and freedom to explore nature at my own pace.
View off the coast of Skokholm
In none of this was I disappointed. After our first guided walk around the island, we were at liberty to do whatever and go wherever we pleased, so I took some time on my first day to get used to the different paths. I explored routes, took detours and investigated nooks and crannies, so that I could easily return to a favourite spot whenever I wanted. I listened to what other visitors had found – the slow-worm nest, the best spot for puffins, the hide by the bog – and packed as much walking as I could into my three days on the island.
I’d taken Dream Island with me, but found I didn’t want to spend time indoors reading about Lockley’s experiences when I could be outside living them myself. So the book got put to one side until I returned home, and I concentrated on soaking up as much of the atmosphere as I could.
Highlights – or should I say ‘notable experiences’ – included:
- Getting up close and personal with puffins and rabbits.
- Seeing a pufflet (a baby puffin) emerge tentatively from a burrow.
- Seeing bird and rabbit corpses litter the island paths: victims of predatory gulls.
- Going up the lighthouse.
- A night-time visit to the cliffs to ‘see’ the storm petrels with infra-red equipment.
- Almost seeing dolphins.
- Seeing a baby Manx shearwater: a little ball of fluff.
Mr Puffin in his burrow
As mentioned above, Lockley’s own investigations into the birdlife of Skokholm did not stop when he left. The island today is a Site of Special Scientific Interest; it is managed by The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, which incorporates the Pembrokeshire Bird Protection Society, started by Lockley in 1938.
Two wardens live on the island, along with a number of volunteers who work and carry out research projects. Every evening, the staff and any interested visitors gather together in the common room of Lockley’s former residence (now converted into visitor bedrooms) for the Skokholm Log: a roll-call of what has been seen on the island during the course of the day. There is also a small library, containing old paper volumes of research logs from the days before the work transferred to computer, plus a few bookshelves of naturalist textbooks – including, of course, a wide selection of Lockley’s own works.
And here we come full circle. Not only did I spot the Private Life of the Rabbit on these bookshelves, but there was also a small trolley full of fiction and guidebooks that could be purchased for a donation. The title that leaped out at me, and which I went home with? Watership Down. It would be a full four months before I became aware of David Mitchell’s debt of inspiration to this book, but I like to feel part of an interweaving narrative by dint of my time on Skokholm.
From rabbits to shearwaters, from sailing to smallholding, from birdwatching to writing: Ronald Lockley lived a full and fascinating life. He inspired the writing of a classic of children’s literature, which inspired the writing of some seminal works of adult fiction; and the writer of those works, in turn, inspired me. To paraphrase Mitchell at that conference, out of every story comes another story. It remains to be seen whose story will come out of mine.
© Gwyneth Marshman 2023
Originally published (with slight differences) on the Bookylicious website (2018)