Good Nature by Kathy Willis: Revealing and optimistic

Good Nature by Kathy Willis (Bloomsbury £20, 336pp) 

Forty years ago, a study published in a scientific journal revealed something intriguing. If patients recovering from gallbladder operations could see trees from their hospital-bed windows, they got better more quickly than those unlucky enough to be staring at nothing more stimulating than a brick wall.

In 2016, schoolchildren in Illinois undertook a series of stressful tests. The students in a classroom with a view to a green space and trees performed much better in the tests than those in a classroom with no windows. And they found them less stressful.

As Kathy Willis argues in this revealing, optimistic book, ‘science backs up our instincts’ about the benefits of interacting with the natural world. Even just looking at it not only feels good but does us good. 

Professor of Biodiversity at Oxford and a former Director of Science at Kew, Willis is ideally placed to provide compelling evidence for her case. She has trawled through scientific literature to highlight studies which prove her points.

Looking at a natural landscape rather than an urban one has a calming influence on us, even when we just see it on a computer screen. The kind of landscape we appear to prefer is one of open grassland with a few trees scattered across it.

Professor Kathy Willis photographed at Kew Gardens

This preference might, arguably, echo the savanna in which our earliest ancestors evolved. In one experiment, people who had lived their whole lives in the rainforest belt of Nigeria and never visited the savanna were shown photographs of a variety of landscapes. They were asked which ones they liked most. A vast majority picked open, savanna-like landscapes.

Colours affect us all. Experiments at the University of Essex have suggested that, in Willis’s words, ‘the colour green makes us more relaxed and creative and give us a more positive outlook’. In another experiment in the Czech Republic, blue emerged as the most attractive colour for a flower and yellow the least. Although, curiously, another study indicated that ‘seeing yellow may make us more creative and work better’.

It is not just seeing nature that helps us. Our other senses benefit from contact with it. In one of her chapters, Willis describes a visit to the perfumier, Floris of London, which has been selling fragrances for 300 years. 

Some of their perfumes have strange, even disgusting bases. Ambergris, for instance, is basically whale poo. However, pleasanter natural smells can have a powerful effect on us. Aromatherapy has scientific backing. The scent of lemon peel can ease the symptoms of asthma; that of lavender can alleviate stress. 

Research at the University of Sussex even showed that the smell of roses ‘could make angry drivers happier’. Road rage – might be reduced by the sniff of a rose!

Hearing nature may bring even more benefits than seeing or smelling it. We all know the sound of water is relaxing but birdsong topped it when Polish participants in an experiment were asked to rank a long list of natural sounds in order of their ability to battle tiredness and stress.

Unsurprisingly, however, the cawing of crows and the squawking of seagulls were not considered helpful.

In a chapter wittily entitled ‘The Proven Health Benefits of Tree-Hugging’, Willis shows how touch is also important, although much less research has been done on it.

All our senses respond to contact with the natural world. In the UK, 7.6million people are living with cardiovascular disease. Fifteen per cent of the population are taking antidepressants. We need every weapon we can find to combat ill health. As this lucid, readable book shows, in many cases, ‘The prescription is NATURE’.