Category: Review (Page 10 of 130)

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

We have a lot of ancient history in Dorset, there are many Iron Age hillforts, barrows and henges and we even have the Dorset Cursus. We have a number of stones placed in significant places by the people of that time, but sadly we don’t have many stone circles as Wiltshire, but we do have some.

Brittiany though has so many stone circles and other megalithic monuments. We can only speculate as to why these huge stone menhirs were erected in the landscape but they must have had some ritual or symbolic meaning or reason for people to go to all that effort. I have a book called, The Standing Stones of Europe which has details of them. I haven’t read it yet, but having looked at some of the photos in the book and online, they are quite spectacular.

With each of these sites there is often a story or piece of folklore associated with them, be it Druids or giants, fairies and other supernatural beings. But the stories they began with aren’t always the stories that we know about these days. They have acquired their own folklore along the way, there has been religious appropriation by the church over the years and some have come to be known by relatively modern rituals.

Rather than looking at these neolithic sites on a regional basis, each of the twelve chapters has a theme that links each of the places in one way or other. It begins with Chaos, and looks at the way that stones were naturally left after the last ice age and the legends that became associated with these places, including the elemental forest and boulders of Huelgoat. As early groups of people began to inhabit the landscape they started to move these stones about and erect them in places that had some meaning to them. What that was we will never know, but I know that we can still feel some of the elements that made those particular sites important. The final chapters of the book bring us up to the modern age with memorials that have been created recently in stone and the way that sites have been deliberately destroyed and the way that some people have reused the stones to mark the landscape.

I really liked this book and thought it was fascinating. I know very little about the standing stones in Northern Europe and I thought that this was a really good introduction to them. I like that this is not an academic tome, they can be a little dry after all, but this is a modern take on these places and how they have affected people over time. The drawings by Alan Montgomery throughout the book are really lovely and add a nice touch. If there was one tiny flaw with this, I thought that it could have included some maps of the locations of the sites discussed as one day I would like to visit some of them. It has also reminded me that I need to read some of the other books that I have on these sites.

4.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

I didn’t grow up in Dorset, but since moving here just over 18 years ago I felt that I had come home. It was odd because even though my grandfather was born in Bridport, we didn’t know anything else about his family. As I researched this history we found family links in West Dorset going back to 1800. I had returned to a place that fitted me well.
I joined the local libraries soon after we moved and I tried to read as much as I could about Dorset. Most of them have come from that great publisher, Dovecote Press, originally based just north of Wimborne. From these books, I learnt a lot about this beautiful county. But with two, then three small children in tow, getting to see some of the spots hasn’t always been easy.

We found our favourite places and then returned to them time again. Only recently have we started to travel more across Dorset exploring places that we have only heard about.
Jon Woolcott knows the county well too. He grew up just across the border and having moved around a bit ended up in the north of the county. Whilst he likes all the well-known spots, the parts of the county that have always fascinated him is the lesser-known places, the hidden and forgotten. Rather than this being another guidebook about the things to see that most other books would have, he walks or cycles and occasionally drives all over the county.

The book is split into five sections, north, south, east, west and central and for each of these we are led to around ten to twelve of the place that Woolcott wants to tell the story of. Some of his trips are to well-known towns across the county, Swanage, Bridport, Dorchester and so on. But what really piques his interest is those little know or long-forgotten places that still have stories to tell. The artists retreat in Long Crichel, where the arrest of two members of the group led to a long overdue change in the law. I learnt about the town that the poet Laureate loved.

As well as more recent history, for example, the decimation of the branch lines across the county by Beeching, takes him to a lot of places that have the memories of the railways left imprinted on the landscape. There is a lot of ancient history in Dorset too, ancient Iron Age hillforts and barrows are strewn liberally across the landscape and it has the longest cursus that can still be traced. He visits one of my favourite spots, Knowlton. It is a henge that has existed 4500 years before the Normans built a church in the middle to claim it for Christianity. Th old religion has claimed it back now and it has an otherworldly appeal to it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book on Dorset. Woolcott took me to familiar haunts, Poole, West Bay and so on. The delight behind this book is going to places that I knew of, but didn’t know much about and learning more about the county I love. It is a book that was written in the moment too, some of it was written in between the lockdowns and there is a light commentary on the various political car crashes that we had in 2022. I did like the notes which have his gentle humour all the way through and it has a great map courtesy of the brilliant Tess of the Vale. I know have an even longer list of places that I know want to go to now.

Disclaimer: I must admit to being a friend of the author and am mentioned in the acknowledgements.

4.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.
In the headlong rush that is modern life these days, we rarely stop and take to time to actually look at the natural world around us. It was one of these moments at home when Lev Parikian was looking at the bird feeder in the garden when it dawned on him that the blue tit flew. It was something that he instinctively knew but had never really thought about. At all.

“The Guide says there is an art to flying”, said Ford, “or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” – Douglas Adams

This ability to move through the air in defiance of the gravity that holds us in place we have overcome with the modern wonders of aeronautical engineering, but for the other creatures of this planet, some of them have been flying for at least hundreds of millions of years. This is his journey of discovery of the wonders of flight.

He begins with mayflies. These have been emerging from rivers with the sole purpose of finding a mate for the past 300 million years. Waiting for them are trout and birds who will be gorging themselves on the feast that has appeared. Even though they are primitive flying insects, they were not the first to take to the air. That is thought to be an insect that could fly around 100 million years before, but there are huge gaps in the fossil record, so this is not something anyone can categorically confirm.
From the mayflies, he explores the insect world and there are further chapters on butterflies, beetles bees and the amazing masters of the air that are dragonflies, one of the few animals that can fly backwards. Each of the chapters is stuffed full of the amazing things that he has found out during his research for the book and I found it fascinating.

The next animals that learnt how to fly are from the age of the dinosaurs. I had always thought that pterodactyls were dinosaurs too, but it turns out that I was wrong. These were the first flying vertebrates and we know a little about them but with huge gaps in the fossil record, there is a lot that is speculative. One fact that I thought was quite amusing is that the baby pterosaurs are known as flaplings. In the mass extinction event that happened 66 million years ago, these were wiped out. The dinosaurs weren’t though, these are the birds that are still with us.

This would have given them a posture, while walking, not dissimilar to a folding canvas picnic chair. Pick it up by the tail, give it a shake, and it might unfold with a click.

The final chapters are about one of his obsessions, birds. Ironically he begins with the flightless birds and penguins, and he rightly asks the question, why if you had gone to the effort of evolving to fly would you abandon it? This is one of the questions that we may never know the answer too, but the natural world is very good at filling niches.

Out of the 10,000 of so species of birds in the world, he has had to be really strict and keep it to a few, so there are chapters on geese, pigeons, albatross and the hummingbird. But he does allow some others to sneak in while we are not paying attention, and he does manage to include his beloved swifts. The final chapter is about the only other flying mammal, the bat, though it is an amusing anecdote that all mammals that have flying in their name, i.e. flying squirrel, don’t fly, but glide.

This is another really enjoyable book by Parikian. If you have read and liked his other books then you will probably like this too, I know I did. If you are hoping for a cold and clinical book about the mechanics of flight from the very first insects to the feather marvels that we see in the sky then this is probably not the book for you.

If you are looking for a book that describes the continual wonder the author has in any creature that can take to the air and fly then you may have found your gateway. Any book that quotes Douglas Adams is onto a winner in my opinion. There is a little less whimsy and humour in this compared to his other books, but that said, it is still here and it really did make me laugh as usual.

5 out of 5 stars

Harry is an artist who lives in his late nephews apartment. He is fairly self contained and is so engrossed in his work that he misses what is happening in the outside world. When it dawns on him that the London that he used to know is pretty much a ghost town, he decides to head to the cottage he has in the West Country. He leaves a note for his neighbour not knowing that he will ever see her again.

Driving to the cottage he is very much aware of how few people have survived the pandemic that has hit the world. After a little while he is surprised to see his London neighbour and her sister appear at his door. They like him, are some of the few survivors that are left. She is a doctor and she saw first hand the devastation of this disease and the news she brings is even more alarming. The nuclear power stations that are scattered across Europe only had a certain amount of time before they become critical and blow.

They need to get to Africa as soon as possible to ensure their safety.

So begins their adventure travelling across Europe scavenging things from homes and other properties on the run from the coming nuclear winter.

Woven in with this story is another thread. Two scientists, Paul and Lisa, are working with an AI. They are teaching it human history with the hope that it could learn what went right and wrong at each stage of civilisation and be able to advise them what humanity need to do in the modern age. The predictions that it gives are not what the scientist and their backers want to hear.

I though that this was excellent. It is both plausible and utterly terrifying. The timing of this book was spot on, written just prior to the pandemic and then released after it bought home just how vulnerable we still are. And still so unprepared too. I did think that there would be a few more people left in this near future, but them does not diminish from the quality of the story. If you are a fan of Station Eleven, then I would recommend reading this too.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this free of charge in return for an honest review.
Farming in this country over the past century has been incredibly harmful to the natural world and the wider environment. Vast quantities of lethal chemicals are sprayed on the land and this has resulted in massive drops in invertebrates and subsequently birds and other animals.
Getting various stakeholders to work together in making these landscapes more nature friendly and to still work for the farmer and their livelihood is fraught with difficulty. The fundamental problem with all of these schemes is that neither side has a full understanding of the implications of any changes that are made.

To try and understand the juxtaposition between farming and nature and the best way of making it work for both, David Elias spent a long time on a farm in the Snowdonia National Park. This farm has been in a family for a long time and he visits many times between 2015 and 2021. Each visit helps him understand the long relationship that they have had with this landscape and how intimately involved the people are.
But getting people to change their outlook takes a lot of time. The farming community is often doing these things because they have a financial incentive via subsidies, what Elias wants to see is the wider community understanding that they are a small but integral part of the solution and want to do these things for themselves.

One of the ways that Wales is doing this is through a unique piece of legislation that they have called the Well-being Of Future Generations Act. This places the obligation onto public bodies to ensure that what they do is sustainable and restores and improves biodiversity. This coupled with their Environmental Act means that the system is geared to improving rather than draining resources for commercial gain. We could do with something like this here, but I can’t see it happening anytime soon..

When it comes down to it, the world is essentially local, and all the better for being understood that way

I thought this was a very interesting book in lots of ways. However, I did feel that there weren’t many practical solutions offered, but I get that he is treading a very sensitive line and offering any suggestions that may be taken the wrong way by people who rely on this way of life for a living. Imposing a new way of life on any people is not the right way of going about things. What Elias has done in this book is show that listening to those that inhabit the land and making small but subtle changes can have a big effect on nature. But, and this is most important, both sides need to work together for the greater good.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this free of charge in return for an honest review.

In 1973 Afghanistan was a totally different country from the broken one that we see today. They had a monarch who ruled from his palace in Kabul, a strongly Muslim country, but they still had their own culture and unlike today with the grim Taliban overlords, there was still a strong musical culture.
It was in this rich culture that Veronica Doubleday arrived with her husband. He was a scholar, and whilst there she was determined to learn about the country from a woman’s perspective. Using her skills as a musician, she made friends with a number of women musicians and this book is about three of them who she formed a particularly strong bond with., Mariam, Mother of Nebi and Shirin.

Each of these three women has a chapter dedicated to them. In each chapter she describes the time spent with each of them, drinking tea, helping with mundane tasks such as picking through rice and growing a strong friendship with each of them. She began to understand their culture more from the conversations she had with them. She learns how to play their music and joins one of the bands as a musician to play at weddings and other events.

I really liked this. It is a fascinating insight into the lives of three women musicians in Afghanistan in the 1970s as well as a historical record of the rich culture that used to exist in these central Asian countries. Doubleday is a sensitive writer, not only about the culture she and her husband have chosen to live in but also about all the people that they write about she encounters. Her unique position as a Western woman meant that she not only had access to most events that her husband was involved in but she could go where no man was permitted. This gave her unparalleled access to a way of life that no male writer would see. Her account of the lives of these three women was unprecedented. Well worth reading.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this free of charge in return for an honest review.

It is evening when a man arrives in Turin on the banks of the Po. The sky is aflame as he finds a table and settles in for dinner. When he is eating his mediocre steak, he is approached by a man with a booming voice who announces that he will be attending the same conference as him. He pauses for a moment, wondering whether to deny it, but he knows he will run into him again soon enough. He says that he also studies the Devil and all of his works too, and will see him there.

This Demonology conference was going to be utterly devoid of joy until he meets Countess Pozzi…

So beings one of the shortest and strangest tales that I have read in a while. This stranger is a researcher of the Extraordinary and he is there to discover the unbelievable. This book is a mere 50 pages long, the same length as I normally give a book before deciding whether or not to continue, so this isn’t going to be a review as such as almost everything would be a spoiler. Rather this a recommendation to read this tautly written story and be amazed just how much can be squeezed into these 50 pages.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this free of charge in return for an honest review.

It has been a very long time since I fished. I dabbled in it as a young lad and then it kind of fizzled out, probably because there were very few of my close friends doing it as well. I had other things that I would rather do, so the small amount of gear that I has was passed on to someone who would get more use out of it.

Malachy Tallack was one of those who started fishing young and for him and his brother it was a hobby that hooked them both and they are both still passionate about it. He grew up in Shetland and whilst there are almost no rivers there, there were countless lochs. They would go in search of the best of them to catch trout. It was while fishing that he discovered a love of the outdoors and a passion for nature.

He hadn’t fished for a while though and when the pandemic began, it made him think about fishing once again, there hadn’t been much good news in the world at that point and he was feeling down. It made him think about fishing, so he ordered a fly kit and began tying flies again with the intention of finding that delight once again.

This is partly a memoir of rivers and lakes fished over his lifetime as well as some insights into why he gets so much pleasure from fishing. He looks at the hobby from a cultural perspective too, asking why so few women fish in the UK compared to the US and Canada and what can be done to bring in ethnic minorities and make it a less white male-dominated hobby. He also gives us his take on why he thinks it isn’t a cruel sport, especially with modern equipment.

I thought this was a good take on the philosophy of fishing. The prose can be lyrical at times and for other parts of the book, where he is expanding on particular aspects of animal welfare, he is clear and concise in his arguments. He is very clear in his stance on the right for humans to fish for pleasure but also acknowledges that we all need to do more for the world to ensure that all animals can live in a clean environment. Worth reading if you want a non-technical book on fishing.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this free of charge in return for an honest review.

Chesil Beach is an amazing geological phenomenon. This 18-mile-long bank of shingle stretches from Portland to the golden cliffs of West Bay and is a unique part of the Dorset coastline. I have visited a couple of times and it is quite something to behold.

The way that the waves form it is quite special too, the waves effectively grade the shingle from large pebbles at Portland to pea-sized stones at West Bay. It is always said that smugglers who knew the beach very well knew exactly where they were by the size of the pebbles underfoot. Not sure if it is true or not, but I think it is a great piece of local folklore.

This special place also bred a strong community in the villages along the fleet. Many of the locals were involved in the seine-net fishing for mackerel along the shore. Spotters on the hill would see the way that the water would be changed as the fish came in and send word to the crews. They would head out into the waves in their boats called Lerrets to catch the shoals.

It was tough, cold work, but the bonds between the crews and the families that supported them were strong. This closed group of fishermen didn’t always see eye to eye, there are a number of tales about fights breaking out as they sought to get the best catches, but they all looked out for each other.

And within living memory, the fish went and this method of fishing that had thrived for hundreds of years has pretty much vanished.

I thought this was a fascinating book about how they fished off Chesil Beach. Sarah Acton has got the balance right with the interview parts of the book and the background of the families that she has researched to fill in the gaps in the story. It is such a shame that this has been lost in living memory. There are still people keeping the boats going, but these men are getting older now, which may be another thing lost too. It is a bit of a niche book, but if you are fascinated by Dorset’s rich history this is a must-read.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this free of charge in return for an honest review.

For the past quarter of a century, Adam Thorpe has lived in an old house in the Cévennes, a range of mountains just north of Montpellier in southern France. He moved to France in 1990 and it was there he wrote Ulverton, a book about 300 years of history of a village in England.

Even though he is English, he was born in Paris and lived all over the place before settling in this region of France and his writing is a more thoughtful and considered approach to life abroad. He takes a long-term view of the place he has chosen to live. He celebrates the good parts of life there, and being a full resident feels that he has earned the right to critique it too.

I haven’t read Ulverton yet, but have read On Silbury Hill a few years ago. Like that book, it is a careful blend of memoir, history, and observation of the people that he has chosen to live with. He chose to move to France knowing that on an author’s salary, he would never be able to afford anywhere in the UK. The plan of buying a plot of land and a rambling farmhouse was scaled back to a house in a village.

The village they chose is very old, most of the buildings still there were erected in the medieval period and the landscape around still has the terraces visible that were used for growing crops in times past. It is a place that comes alive in the spring as orchids, wild garlic and numerous other wildflowers turn the grey slopes a psychedelic riot of colour.

The house they live in has layers of history that are visible in the architecture and tiny details that he learns about from his neighbours about how it was used. The region suffered a lot from poverty people went barefoot to save wearing out their shoes and stripped the hillsides of all timber for fuel.

The house they have bought reveals many things as they change and adapt it to their modern needs, they find long shallow grooves in the back stonework and a neighbour shows him demonstrate how knives were sharpened as they headed out for a day’s work. In a more sinister note, they find a witchcraft poppet. This is for the owner to cast spells over someone else. He returns it to where it was found and covers it again.

The families that live in the village have been there for millennia too. Thorpe learns much about the complexity of relationships even in this tiny village. There is a chapter on the rivalries between the two families and the long-running dispute they have had. He learns to tread carefully when asking about the history of the place.

I really liked this. It is not the story of someone fortunate enough to be able to afford a second home in a nice part of France, rather it is the observations of someone who is completely committed to the place they have chosen to live. His gentle and sensitive prose is a gentle meander around this village and like his other non-fiction book, is a blend of memories, history and current events, jostling for your attention. If there was one flaw, and this is only a minor one, it felt a little disjointed at times. It was reading the acknowledgements though that I found that this is a collection of articles that he wrote for the TLS, re-edited and bought together for this book. I personally would have preferred to have known that as I read each chapter.