Final book captures conservationist’s love of Wales’ wild coast
Nation.Cymru staff
A lifetime spent exploring the wildflowers of the west Wales coast has been captured in a new book completed following the sudden death of its author.
Flowers of the West Wales Coast brings together 200 photographs taken by conservationist Mike Alexander over decades spent observing and recording the plants found along the Welsh coastline.
Alexander, a respected figure in nature conservation in Wales and internationally, died while the book was undergoing its final edits.
It was subsequently completed with the help of his widow Rosanne Alexander and friends and colleagues, turning what had been intended as a celebration of coastal flora into something that also records a lifetime’s fascination with the natural world.
In the book’s acknowledgements, Mrs Alexander writes: “Looking back over these words and pictures from a new perspective, I see a whole life here, crammed with the places he adored, which truly encompasses his vibrant personality.”
Published by Y Lolfa, the book isn’t intended as a conventional botanical identification guide.
Instead, Alexander wanted to encourage people – whether experienced plant enthusiasts or simply walkers who find themselves wondering about a flower beside the coast path – to look more closely at what surrounds them.
“This is not an identification book, but a celebration of wildflowers: a picture book with just enough text to encourage you to go and explore further,” he wrote in his introduction.
“This book is for the casual or inexperienced observer, as well as the committed plant lover, and I want the text to be as widely accessible as possible.”
The flowers are grouped into families and accompanied by their Welsh, English and Latin names.
Alongside Alexander’s photographs are details of the folklore and medicinal uses associated with different species, literary references and suggestions of places where particularly impressive displays can be found.
The result reflects not only his interest in individual plants but the landscapes in which they grow.
Naturalist and television presenter Iolo Williams has described the finished book as “an absolute delight”.
Legacy
Alexander had spent decades photographing the coast’s wildflowers, seeking out images which captured individual species at their best.
His concern was also for their future.
He wrote: “If this book can bring people just a little closer to the magnificent wild landscapes around our coast, it may make some contribution towards protecting them for the future.”
Following his death, the work of completing the book involved botanist John Rodwell, Alexander’s long-standing friend and editor of British Plant Communities, botanist and nature writer Goronwy Wynne and Y Lolfa’s head of English publishing, Carolyn Hodges.
Hodges had previously worked with Alexander on his book Skomer Island, and said the two had become friends during the process.
She said: “It has been a real honour to be able to help bring this book to completion for him.
“It brings together some of the things he most loved in his life: flowers, photography, poetry, walking the coast path, and his beloved Wales.
“It’s an absolutely beautiful book and if it encourages people to value and help conserve our coastal flora, it will be a great part of the legacy of a truly remarkable man.”
For Rosanne Alexander, looking through the completed collection after her husband’s death revealed something beyond a photographic record of Wales’ coastal flowers.
The images and accompanying words had become a record of the places he loved and, taken together, of the life he had spent among them.
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