"When I was 10 years olf we had a marvellous holiday at a watermill in Sussex. It was an idyllic spot with a profusion of wildlife. I have memories of seeing a toad that had inflated its body to fend off a grass snake, an underground mole nest exposed by the excavation of a clay pit, and water voles felling yellow flags to nibble. The most memorable part of the holiday was the antics of eels trying to make their way upstream."