S Coulthard - The Book of Building Fires: How to Master the Art of the Perfect Fire

For my brother, Ben

First published in the United States of America in 2018 by Chronicle Books LLC.

Text first published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Head of Zeus.

Text copyright 2017 by Sally Coulthard.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 9781452170824 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Coulthard, Sally, author.
Title: The book of building fires / S. Coulthard.
Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 2018. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017045314 | ISBN 9781452170756 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Firemaking. | Stoves, Wood. | Campfires.
Classification: LCC GN417 .C68 2018 | DDC 796.54/5--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045314

Design by Alice Chau.
Illustrations by Claire McCracken.

Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com

Give me, said Joe, a good book, or a good newspaper, and sit me down afore a good fire and I ask no better.

CHARLES DICKENS, GREAT EXPECTATIONS

My oldest memories are touched by fire. The sweet smell of woodsmoke takes me straight back to my childhood home, a tall Victorian townhouse blessed with fireplaces on every floor.

Id help my father build and light the fire in the front room, a treat, because it was a space reserved for special occasions, and a great excuse to have him to myself. I learned by osmosis, slowly watching and absorbing the careful ritual of scrunching newspaper and arranging bone-dry twigs on a bed of ash. I especially liked it when he would hold a large sheet of newspaper over the mouth of the chimney to draw air up the flue. This skillful trick would transform a few infant flames into a roaring inferno in secondsa feat both thrilling and deliciously dangerous.

Fire also takes me back to playing outdoors as a child. My brother and I would sneak to the bottom of the garden, having smuggled out a box of matches, and spend dry afternoons building small campfires and setting fire to anything that came to hand. Our favorite game involved lighting long lengths of dried nettles, the stems of which would smolder like a cigarette; wed sit around the campfire, holding them aloft like socialites, taking the occasional puff, quickly followed by a cough and splutter.

I equate fire with childhood holidays, too. Family expeditions werent always stress free, but the best moments were the ones when we found ourselves around a campfire, or cooking outdoors. From rough campsites to backyard sleepovers with friends, evenings were always sweeter with an open fire and convivial conversation. Wed spend summers with an Italian family, making campfires in Alpine forests and cooking polenta in a huge copper pan over the embers, the careful preparation that went into making and tending the fire adding to the sense of occasion.

As an adult, my relationship with fire has mutated into something different, but no less intense. Fire has come to mean other thingsromantic evenings huddled under a blanket, or the irresistible draw of a welcoming pub after a wet Sunday walk. As a young adult working in London, I would escape for a few days to a remote hideout, complete with open firemy idea of heaven. Away from the city, I could pretend I was living a different life, the ritual of setting and lighting a fire making me feel calmer and more connected with nature. Im never surprised when people put fireplace on their vacation rental wish listsa rural retreat without one seems strangely pointless.

Nowadays, I live on a farm with my young family. Fire, again, is everywhere. Bonfires are a regular event, a useful tool for clearing away the cuttings and branches that inevitably pile up. The kids have campfires in their little stretch of woodlandmany a saucepan has been ruined by their attempts at hot chocolate, or failing that, they crack open a packet of marshmallows and perfect their toasting technique, which is something akin to a rotisserie.

Indoors, the farmhouse is warmed by a wood-fired biomass boilera temperamental affair but one that, when it works, puffs out gentle wafts of scented smoke. When the cold weather really sets in, no evening is complete without lighting up one of the woodstoves or a fireplace. Woodstoves are a completely different beast from traditional hearth fires, and it has taken a while to master the differences. What you miss in the friendly pops and crackles of an open flame you more than make up for in heat output and efficiency. Ive discovered theres a place for both, and each has its charm.

There is, of course, a dark side to fire. As the old saying goes, Fire makes a good servant but a bad master, and the potential for things to go wrong is never far away. As a parent, I wince at the thought of my children playing with fire the way my brother and I did, but those early lessons taught me more about the anatomy and behavior of fire than any schoolroom could have.

And thats what this book is really about. Fireplaces and woodstoves have made quite a comeback in the past few years; there are lots of reasons why, both economic and environmental, but perhaps its also true that central heating is, well, just a bit soulless, and not everything worth having can come at the push of a button.

In the same way that thousands of people are rediscovering the pleasure of local produce or the satisfaction of making things with their own two hands, so too are many of us rekindling the primeval pleasure of wood fires. The very act of collecting branches and chopping logs, scrunching up newspaper, building stacks, and watching them burn triggers deeply buried memories. It all feels just so familiar.

But for all this enthusiasm, how many of us know how to build a fire? Would we know which kinds of trees burn best or how long logs need to be stored? Could we make our own firelighters, or build the perfect fire stack? Most of us love to toast our toes by an open fire but dont know or have forgotten how to build one and keep it alight.