White Fox
David Elder
ISBN 9781068488313
 
David Elder has a great feeling for writing about nature in its wildness and in its detail – mountains, mists, woodlice, spiders, lichen – from the magnificent to the marginalised, he looks with love and understanding. And – again, especially in nature – he has a gift for catching special moments or epiphanies. 
(Rosie Bailey, poet)
 
Too often there’s a danger of poets having to find the extraordinary. What matters more is finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, and celebrating that with words. This is what David Elder does, admirably.
(Kenneth Steven, poet)
 
White Fox treats readers to dramatic scenery, remarkable history and a rich variety of wildlife – particularly birds. With a photographer’s eye, David Elder focuses on landmarks and habitats, often in Scotland but also, latterly, in Svalbard. Environmental concerns accompany our travels, as do Hopkins, Eliot and Shakespeare. At other times, we zoom out into space, nodding to Galileo, or register gravity’s pull, acknowledging Newton. Family history takes us to world war battlefields, with echoes of Wilfred Owen and Edward Thomas.
Elder’s compassion for those touched by more recent wars is evidence of an admirable human being – and a fine poet.
(Sharon Larkin, poet and  Stanza representative for Gloucestershire)