Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir

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Some details I wish I wouldn’t have read about either - mainly speaking about ‘triangular bushes’ here. He is passionate about all things wildlife and conservation, an interest that stemmed from early in his childhood where he developed a fascination with all creatures great, small, dead and alive. When other children were playing together in the street, young Chris was out collecting bugs in jars, birds eggs, wings, pellets and other specimens for his curious collection. Chris Packham, well-known TV presenter and wildlife expert, takes us back to his childhood in 1960s Southampton, and we meet a curious child who doesn't quite fit in to the societal norm.

Fingers in the Sparkle Jar is a truly beautiful, honest account of growing up with Asperger’s and in love with nature, when everyone around you wasn’t. I am very flattered because up until this point almost all the discussion ‘Sparkle Jar’ has generated has been about my Aspergers .In terms of style the language reminds me of Robert MacFarlane and the author does admit that MacFarlane was given a draft of it and provided support. He is best known for the BAFTA-winning The Really Wild Show and fronting BBC's Springwatch and Autumnwatch. His parents were gracious and tolerant with the way that he saw the world and the way that it saw him, but the way people failed to understand him did intensify the internal conflicts he suffered from.

His writing is poetic, lyrical and beautiful, even when writing about commonplace events such as an encounter with the local ice-cream man. It feels wrong to critique this, as you can tell it’s written with a deep love and affection for these animals, but although I admire his enthusiasm it did make this book a struggle to get through.Seems like an honest insight into the author’s life, a confessional about his struggles with his condition and the liberation he found through punk. I couldn't take him seriously knowing the words he wrote down and sent out for everyone to read and say "yes, this is what Chris Packham is like". Chris Packham's memoir Fingers in the Sparkle Jar is a brutal, beautiful book that subverts the memoir genre through third person accounts of events involving him.