IS Geoff Marsh the Bill Oddie of Lytchett Matravers - or can Oddie learn a thing or two from our Geoff?

The former Goodies mainstay and lifelong nature lover has put Britain's flora and fauna back in the hearts of the nation with hugely popular programmes like Springwatch and Birdwatch - but Geoff has been keeping nature diaries for the best part of the past 50 years.

Indeed, in 1993, he was specially commended in BBC Wildlife magazine's Nature Diarists Competition for his work on the badgers of Lytchett Matravers.

Those journals and photographs have now been collated in a new book, My Patch: Badgers of a Dorset Village (Ryelands, £12.99).

Born and brought up in Lytchett Matravers, where his father kept Goat Farm, Geoff, 54, has had a patch, as he calls it, ever since he could walk.

As he grew, so did his patch, until it covered a couple of woods, several fields and all manner of hedgerows, gardens and walks.

Until he left the village and moved to East Tytherley, near Romsey, that was his special place.

It was the place he knew better than anywhere on earth, where he could find time to unwind and enjoy everything nature had placed there.

Especially the badgers.

"Well, I suppose nature has always been my fascination, ever since I was very little," he says.

"Mum started us off by taking us out for walks and pointing things out, and it just grew from there."

The book rounds up Geoff's diary entries and photographs from a two-year period beginning in January, 1992.

Through it, we follow not only the movements of the members of several badger groups, or cetes, but also the changing seasons around them, the flowers, other creatures, even the mood of the times as Geoff catalogues the day-to-day life of his patch.

"Where possible I've tried to use the photographs from the actual day referred to in the text, so it stays very true to what actually happened.

"There were some changes, though. I remember one entry, about a Scarlet Moth Caterpillar, but a caterpillar isn't very photogenic to some people, so I used a photo of the actual moth."

Geoff acknowledges the influence of Chris Ferris, arguably Britain's leading naturalist writer.

"She wrote a book called Darkness is Light Enough, which came about after she was struck down with terrible back pain.

"She found that getting out and about helped with the pain, and started keeping a diary, which she then published.

"I didn't want to write a straight textbook about badgers as, although I could talk about them all day, that might not be so popular. And I couldn't see how it would work as a novel, so we went ahead with the diary format. It's handy as people can just dip in and out of the book, or they can follow the whole story as it unfolded to me."

A professional gardener and wildlife photographer, Geoff now gives illustrated talks to clubs and societies across the south, his love of the natural world undimmed by the passing of time.

"I love being outdoors, and I'll always love the badgers, but your interests do shift over time.

"I've been photographing brown hares for the past few years, and I like the wild flowers as well, because you can get down and really close to them.

"But the thing with nature, as with any hobby, is you have to focus.

"It's like an artist couldn't paint a great picture if they're worried about paying next month's council tax bill.

"You have to concentrate and give it your all."

  • My Patch: Badgers of a Dorset Village is available now from bookshops or by phone from Halsgrove Direct on 01823 653777.