Two and a Half Questions with Richard Skelton

How did you develop your deep attachment to nature? Is it also a way of connecting to your past, your childhood?

Like many people, I started out with a deep attachment to nature. As a child, I wanted to be an ornithologist or a cartographer. But for some reason studying biological science at school left me completely cold, and I lost interest, and there certainly wasn't any academic outlet for my obsession with maps. So these things gradually dwindled and soon adulthood came with that way it has of driving a wedge between us and our passions. Modern culture. Television. Careers. The built environment. These things conspire to make us forget. It was only recently, when I spent five years in relative seclusion in rural Lancashire, that I had a kind of epiphany. A return to what mattered. Moreover, I discovered that the natural landscape isn't merely pretty, or scenic, or picturesque. My experiences out there in the woods and fields can really only be described as a spiritual reawakening - but one which had no reference to God or any specific religion.

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Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute