Category: Review (Page 10 of 132)

Didn’t January Drag? As ever. And making it to February means that I can look back over the month of reading and acquisitions and think that a book-buying ban is never going to happen… Even though I did by a few, more importantly, I passed a load on and 43 books left the house to find new homes.

So firstly here is what I read in January:

 

Books Read

Hemingway’s Chair – Michael Palin – 2 Stars

And The Mountains Echoed – Khaled Hosseini – 2 Stars

Endurance: 100 Tales Of Survival, Endurance And Exploration – Ed. Levison Wood – 3 Stars

A Local Habitation – Norman Nicholson – 3 Stars

Ravilious & Co: The Pattern Of Friendship – Andy Friend – 3.5 Stars

The Turning Tide: A Biography Of The Irish Sea – Jon Gower – 3.5 Stars

On Writing and Failure – Stephen Marche – 3.5 Stars

Cornerstones: Wild Forces That Can Change Our World – Benedict Macdonald – 3.5 Stars

Elixir: In The Valley At The End Of Time – Kapka Kassobova – 4 Stars

Vuelta Skelter: Riding The Remarkable 1941 Tour Of Spain – Tim Moore – 4 Stars

Abroad in Japan: Ten Years In The Land Of The Rising Sun – Chris Broad – 4 Stars

Blue Dahlia, Black Gold: A Journey Into Angola – Daniel Metcalfe – 4 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness – Alastair Humphreys – 4.5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Travel – 6

Fiction – 2

Writing – 1

History – 1

Natural History – 1

Biography – 1

Poetry – 1

 

Top Publishers

Bloomsbury – 2

Arrow – 1

Harper North – 1

Head Of Zeus – 1

Eye Books – 1

Thames & Hudson – 1

Sort Of Books – 1

Jonathan Cape – 1

Bantam – 1

Vintage – 1

Faber & Faber – 1

Methuen – 1

 

Review Copies Received

Utter, Earth: Advice on Living in a More-than-Human World – Isaac Yuen

Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love – Ed. Joanne Ella Parsons

 

Library Books Checked Out

A Line In The World: A Year On The North Sea Coast – Dorthe Nors

Homesick: Why I Live in a Shed – Catrina Davies

God Is An Octopus: Loss, Love and a Calling to Nature – Ben Goldsmith

 

Books Bought

Pages From My Passport – Amelia Dalton

Tyneham – The Lost Village of Dorset – Andrew Norman & Mary Hurst

The Museum of Cathy – Anna Stothard

Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop? – Chris van Tulleken

Aromabingo – David Gaffney

Cranborne Chase – Desmond Hawkins

Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the coming of the Romans – Francis Pryor

Professor Stewart’s Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries – Ian Stewart

Scotland the How?: The Hows and Whys of Scottish History – John and Noreen Hamilton

From a Persian Tea House: Travels in Old Iran – Michael Carroll

Pottery – Penny Copeland-Griffiths

Riding the Magic Carpet: A Surfer’s Odyssey in Search of the Perfect Wave – Tom Anderson

The Anthology of Scottish Folk Tales – Various

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India – William Dalrymple

Throwim Way Leg: An Adventure – Tim Flannery

The Cruise of the Snark – Jack London

A Stroke of the Pen – Terry Pratchett

The New Poacher’s Handbook – Ian Niall

 

So any from that huge list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

4 out of 5 stars

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

The travel adverts that fill our media after the excesses of Christmas are there to seduce us into travelling to these beautiful places, with the promise of making your life rich with experiences. There are those who would rather strike out on their own, venturing to places around the world that do not have a mass tourist industry, with the hope of finding something for the inner spirit.

Humphreys is one of those latter people. One of his first big adventures was to cycle all around the world (both books on his journey are great by the way) and he has walked around Spain in the footsteps of Laurie Lee whilst badly playing a violin. He is also a great advocate for micro adventures, short travels and adventures that take a day or a few hours and are there to enrich your life, without draining your wallet. This book is a follow-on from that.

The basic principle is that he wanted to stay local and discover all there is to find within a short distance from his home. He bought a map centred on his home from the OS that covered 20 km by 20 km and looked at the squares it was divided up into and decided to visit each one square kilometre on a day when he was free.

Like anyone who has lived in the same area for a reasonable period of time, you tend to think that you know your locale well. Well, as Humphreys found out, I bet that you don’t. This journey of very little distance would take him back in time, to relics from the war, he discovers something called a denehole and decides to see what is inside. He passes through housing estates, and graveyards and admires the ancient yews that add a certain gravitas to the place.

He comes across tiny cottages tucked away in woods he didn’t know existed, tries a spot of mudlarking and delights in the return of the swifts. Not every discovery is pleasant, there are burnt-out cars, fly-tipping and He is continually appalled by the litter scattered all over the place and ends up collecting bagfuls to dispose of properly. There is the odd surreal discovery too, a stuffed toy in the fork of a tree, is it there for a parent to rediscover, or as a symbol of some form? He also discovers in his 20Km by 20Km area that he can’t go everywhere, he finds lots of keep-out signs some of which he chooses to ignore..

Not only did I find this a really enjoyable read, but I think it highlights something that we probably all need to do more of, by acting locally and thinking globally and not consuming vast amounts of resources just because we can. As Humphreys shows in all of the chapters in this book there are countless things that can be discovered pretty much on your doorstep. And I would hazard a guess that like he found, there are things that you had no idea existed near you.

Humphreys writes with a self-depreciating humour and a sense of wonder in almost everything that he sees or looks at. But coupled with this is the fury that he has with the way that the planet in general and his local area, in particular, is being treated. It might not be something that some readers want to hear, but it does need to be said. If you want a very different sort of travel book and one that you can use as a springboard to find out what is in your local area then this is a really good place to start.

4 out of 5 stars

As the Battle of Britain rages over the village of Woodville. Several planes have crashed and one of the villagers has been keeping parts of them in one of his barns. He is terrified when he realises that there is a poltergeist who is flinging the debris about in it. The three witches use a spell to realise the spirit. It is as they are leaving, Faye turns to see another ghost in the barn still, an airman who is scared on his face.

The three witches are visited by the leader of the Council of High Witches. It is a warlock, called Bellamy, The previous incumbent has been removed following the events covered in the previous book. He is there to ask the three witches to join him in casting a spell to stop the probable Nazi invasion.

They are going to be joined by witches from all over the country to create this cone of power and to gain maximum power for the spell tells them they will need to be skyclad. The witches are more than happy to help, but if he thinks they are getting their kit off, he has another thing coming…

These are a nice easy read and this is another enjoyable book in the series. The plot is not overly complex, and there are little subplots going on that have carried on from the previous books. I think that I worked out some of the essential plot pointss earlier in the book. It didn’t spoil it for me though. Being a series, I kind of know that everything is going to be okay, but there is a certain amount of jeopardy in the journey to the conclusion which I think makes for entertaining reading. Looking forward to the next one which I have just got out of the library.

4 out of 5 stars

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

Being an island nation we have had to get used to invaders that have regularly turned up over the past 2000 years. Most of them haven’t been particularly friendly, the Vikings spring to mind. This threat of ‘invasion’, especially those in ‘small boats’ fuelled by certain papers and politicians, coupled with the fact that most coastal towns and villages are run down or tired then these factors may be why most people in these places voted for Brexit.

This book is a tour of some of the coastal towns around the UK. It is not extensive and both the author and the illustrator visited the places together after the pandemic lockdowns to get a feel for the places and to do some people watching. They begin their journey in the English Riveria. The town of Torquay is haunted by the spectre of Faulty towers and isn’t quite what it used to be though, and feels like it is full of Little Britain bigotry. It has lost some of its charm
Weston Super-Mare is a place that I have only ever been to once. I can’t remember how old I was, but all I remember was the mud glistening in the sun and the tide went out. It was the place that Banksy chose for his theme park, Dismaland with his particular take on the English seaside.

Quite who was taking the piss out of whom has not been determined… In the time of Covid restrictions though, normal seaside activities are not happening, the donkeys that would have been plodding up and down the beach aren’t there.
Sandbanks is quite a place. It is dripping with money and should you have any desire to live there you will need a large fortune, but anyone can turn up and enjoy the beach and the views over the Purbecks and Old Harry Rocks. Just along the coast, Boscombe is a complete contrast. It has had money poured into it, but it still feels slightly seedy and rundown, but it does now have a gastropub. The pier here is a beautiful minimalist design and is a favourite of mine. Sykes mentions something here that I have never really noticed before, that almost all the benches have memorials on them, unlike other countries. As they head towards Christchurch, they find anti-vax slogans alongside the benches, the irony is not lost on the author, that these people lived long enough to be remembered because of the vaccination programmes of the 20th century. From Sandbanks one end, at the opposite end of the bay are the most expensive beach huts in the UK.

And so to Essex, a county that is often unfairly defined by its derogatory stereotypes. Clacton is drab and artificially lit by amusement arcades. They find a pub, that is allegedly the worst in the country, but they feel that have been in worse before. The mediocre food isn’t really enhanced by the karaoke serenade they are treated too either… They move further along the coast to Jaywick, here it feels like a shanty town with the jerry-rigged houses and the slide downward is very visible here. Sykes ponders if it is a precursor to the economic Brexit slide, though there is a glimmer of hope he sees in the Happy Club and its bartering system.

Sykes heads to his home patch of Portsmouth for the next journey. He recommends that it is always worth looking down, not just to avoid stepping in anything nasty, but so you can spot the engravings, inscriptions and other man-made items embedded in the ground. He marvels at the attempts to make Gosport a seaside town, whilst the industrial past and present loom over in a slightly threatening way. Even though Portsmouth has a long history, sometimes he has to look really far to see it. On a more positive note, the city has gone from being a cultural desert and a place to catch the clap to a place that is forging its own new identity.
The beach at Milton has its own strand line of plastic debris and other detritus and is not as salubrious as Sandbanks… The sluice gate is packed with rubbish and other junk, in a nasty tribute to the glamour of capitalism that is Gunwharf Keys. But one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, and his beachcomber friend, Dan, collects this junk, with the hope of finding something interesting.

Hayling Island is not quite an island, he could drive onto it, but chooses to take the ferry. Sykes has mixed memories of the place and visiting again, brings them flooding back. It was where his grandparents lived, but his uncles and aunts have less fond memories of their upbringing. They lived in poverty, surviving on benefits and budget clothing and where a treat was a trip to the funfair.

Another branch of Sykes’s family comes from Yorkshire. His grandfather joined the navy, hence why they ended up living in Portsmouth, but he feels a trip back there is due. He begins in Robin Hood bay, in a mostly left-wing county, it has been a Tory stronghold for almost a century now. It feels very different to the seaside town of the south and is discombobulating for him. Whilst in the area he feels that they should visit Whitby. He likes its unique culture and it has become a place of homage to Dracula, even though he is barely there in the book. It has expanded from that now, but don’t tell the goths, and this is the place where he eats the best fish and chips of the trip.

The first pub that they enter in Scarborough has a very disturbing political bent and so they head to the possibly wrongly named Grand Hotel. It may have been at one point, but isn’t now… They take a wander up the headland, past the bowling green. A waitress describes the place as dead, but as they have found with all the places they have visited, there is life if you know where to look.

A tour of the seaside towns of the UK wouldn’t really be a full tour if you didn’t go to Blackpool. It once was the pinnacle of the British seaside resorts, and whilst it still has it, some of the glamour has faded. They walk the sights and see the lights, have a go at bingo and partake in a mini pub crawl. It isn’t as run down as other towns they have visited, it still draws a fair number of visitors, but there is a seedy side that they come across. It seems to be holding its history well and seems to be in a good position to move forward.

I really liked this book. The mix of forensic observation of people by Sykes and the sketches by the very talented Louis Netter makes for a very unusual book indeed. But it works, or at least it did for me. I think that the reason for that is that they travelled to all of the locations in the book together and they have a certain dynamic that works really well. These dual views of what was happening around them are expertly portrayed in the art and the words. If you want to read a very different travelogue of Britain then this is a brilliant place to start.

For a long month, December always seems to go so fast. With all the things going on, I have never really seemed to have as much time to read as I want, but I did manage to finish my Good Reads challenge of 190 books again. To reach that total I had 14 books to finish, and here they all are:

Books Read

Malarkoi – Alex Pheby – 3.5 Stars

Winter’s Gifts – Ben Aaronovitch – 3.5 Stars

The Holly King – Mark Stay – 4 Stars

Shitstorm – Fernando Sdrigotti – 3.5 Stars

Travellers Through Time: A Gypsy History – Jeremy Harte – 4 Stars

I Hate Christmas: A Manifesto for the Modern-day Scrooge – Daniel Blythe – 2.5 Stars

The Lost Flock: Rare Wool, Wild Isles and One Woman’s Journey to Save Scotland’s Original Sheep – Jane Cooper – 3.5 Stars

Soundings: Journeys In The Company Of Whales – Doreen Cunningham – 3 Stars

Wild Isles – Patrick Barkham & Alastair Fothergill – 3.5 Stars

Yew – Fred Hageneder – 4 Stars

The Last Hedgehog – Pam Ayres & Alice Tait (Ill) – 3.5 Stars

Nature Tales for Winter Nights – Ed. Nancy Campbell – 3.5 Stars

Wild Wanderings – Phil Gribbon – 3 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

This is a stunning book of art and poetry. Well

Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone – Jackie Morris – 4.5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Fiction – 29

Natural History – 25

Travel – 23

Poetry – 18

Memoir – 13

Fantasy – 11

History – 8

Science Fiction – 7

Art – 5

Politics – 5

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 12

Simon & Schuster – 7

Bloomsbury – 6

William Collins – 6

Penguin – 6

Little Toller – 6

Jonathan Cape – 5

Elliott & Thompson – 5

Reaktion Books – 4

Headline – 4

 

Review Copies Received

Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites: 44 – Ed. Katy Soar

Roads of Destiny: And Other Tales of Alternative Histories and Parallel Realms – Ed. Alasdair Richmond

The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East – Barnaby Rogerson

 

Library Books Checked Out

Elixir: In The Valley At The End Of Time – Kapka Kassobova

A Year in the Life: Adventures in British Subcultures – Lucy Leonelli

Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future – Philip Lymbery

Abroad in Japan: Ten Years In The Land Of The Rising Sun – Chris Broad

 

Books Bought

You Took the Last Bus Home – Brian Bilston

Orwell’s Roses – Rebecca Solnit

Homage to Barcelona – Colm Toibin

The Nightingale – Sam Lee

The Elder Edda – Unknown

The Peace Of Wild Things – Wendell Berry

Hermit – Jade Angeles Fitton

Dorset’s World Heritage Coast: An Archaeological Guide – John Beavis

The Greek Islands – Lawrence Durrell

In Search Of England – H.V. Morton

The Oatmeal Ark: From the Western Isles to a Promised Sea – Rory MacLean

The Time-travelling Caveman – Terry Pratchett

Legends & Folklore Dorset – Andrew Caffrey

Why Women Grow – Alice Vincent

The Road to McCarthy – Pete McCarthy

Earth Memories – Llewelyn Powys

The Mirror Of The Sea – Joseph Conrad

The Man Who Planted Trees – Jean Giono, Harry Brockway (Ill) & Aline Giono

Lev’s Violin: An Italian Adventure – Helena Attlee

Danziger’s Adventures: From Miami to Kabul – Nick Danziger

 

So any from that huge list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

As usual, I have scoured the catalogues for all the books that pique my attention I only managed to find 16 catalogues this time, so this may be updated as the others are published. So without further ado, here are the books:

 

Bloomsbury

Vulture Capitalism – Grace Blakeley

How To Be A Citizen – C.L. Skatch

Wild Service – Nick Hayes

Cold Kitchen – Caroline Eden

On This Holy Island – Oliver Smith

Cypria – Alex Christofi

The Tomb Of The Mili Mongga – Samuel Turvey

Warming Up – Madeline Orr

Potholes & Pavements – Laura Laker

Groundbreakers – Chantal Lyons

Cull Of The Wild – Hugh Warwick

Wild Woman – Philippa Forrester

Stowaway – Joe Shute

 

Bodley Head

Great Britain?: How To Get Our Future Back – Torsten Bell

 

Canongate

Poyums – Len Pennie

Between Britain: Walking The History Of England And Scotland – Alistair Moffat

We Are Electric; The New Science Of Our Body’S Electrome – Sally Adee

Your Wild And Precious Life: On Grief, Hope And Rebellion – Liz Jensen

The Laws Of Connection: The Transformative Science Of Being Social – David Robson

 

Chatto & Windus

Not The End Of The World: How We Can Be The First Generation To Build A Sustainable Planet – Hannah Ritchie

 

Chelsea Green

Hedgelands – Christopher Hart

 

Duckworth

The Lost Carving: A Journey To The Heart Of Making – David Esterley

The Case For Nature: Pioneering Solutions For The Other Planetary Crisis – Siddarth Shrikanth

Understorey: A Year Among Weeds – Anna Chapman Parker

 

Elliott & Thompson

Sunken Lands – Gareth E. Rees

In All Weathers – Matt Gaw

The Way Through The Woods – Rebecca Beattie

Infinite Life – Jules Howard

This Allotment – Ed. Sarah Rigby

Radical Rest – Evie Muir

A Day In The Life Of The Green Economy – Dharshini David

The Centre Must Hold – Ed. Yair Zivan

 

Eye Books

Local – Alastair Humphreys

 

Faber & Faber

The Rising Down: Lives In An East Sussex Landscape – Alexandra Harris

How To Win An Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler – Peter Pomerantsev

The Vast Extent – Lavinia Greenlaw

The City Of Today Is A Dying Thing – Des Fitzgerald

Back To The Local – Maurice Gorham & Edward Ardizzone

Blossomise – Simon Armitage Ill. Angela Harding

 

Fitzcarraldo Editions

The Observable Universe – Heather Mccalden

 

Granta

All Before Me: A Search For Belonging In Wordsworth’S Lake District – Esther Rutter

The Flitting – Ben Masters

 

Headline

Who Owns This Sentence? – David Bellos And Alexandra Montagu

Kersten’s Lists – François Kersaudy

A History Of The World In 47 Borders – Jonn Elledge

Lvoe Ii – Atticus Poetry

Return Of The Aubergine – Sophie Grigson

 

Hurst

The Algorithm: How Ai Can Hijack Your Career And Steal Your Future – Hilke Schellmann

Orwell’S Ghosts: Wisdom And Warnings For The 21St Century – Laura Beers

Sorry For The Inconvenience But This Is An Emergency: The Nonviolent Struggle For Our Planet’S Futur – Lynne Jones

The Great Indian Food Trip: Around A Subcontinent À La Carte – Zac O’Yeah

Italy In A Wineglass: The Taste Of History – Marc Millon

 

Jonathan Cape

Rapture’s Road – Seán Hewitt

The Book Forger – Joseph Hone

Ruin, Blossom – John Burnside

The Book-Makers: A History Of The Book In 18 Remarkable Lives – Adam Smyth

The Roads To Rome: A History – Catherine Fletcher

 

Little Toller

Set My Hand Upon The Plough – Enid Barraud

 

Octopus Books

I Can Hear the Cuckoo – Kiran Sidhu

 

Oneworld

Who Owns The Moon? :In Defence Of Humanity’S Common Interests In Space – A.C. Grayling

 

Profile Books

Exhausted: An A–Z For The Weary – Anna Katharina Schaffner

The House Divided: Sunni, Shia And Conflict In The Middle East – Barnaby Rogerson

The Language Puzzle: How We Talked Our Way Out Of The Stone Age – Steven Mithen

The Return Of The Grey Partridge Restoring Nature On The South Downs – Roger Morgan-Grenville And Edward Norfolk

Possible: 16 Ways To Net Zero – Chris Goodall

In The Long Run The Future As A Political Idea – Jonathan White

The High Seas: Ambition, Power And Greed On The Unclaimed Ocean – Olive Heffernan

Rumbles: A Curious History Of The Gut – Elsa Richardson

The New Breadline: Hunger And Hope In The Twenty-First Century – Jean-Martin Bauer

Amuse Bouche: How To Eat Your Way Around France – Carolyn Boyd

The Accidental Garden – Richard Mabey

 

Quercus

Four Shots In The Night – Henry Hemming

Riding Route 66: Find Myself On America’S Mother Road – Henry Cole

My Family And Other Seedlings: A Year On A Dorset Allotment – Lally Snow

 

Reaktion Books

Saving The World: How Forests Inspired Global Efforts To Stop Climate Change From 1770 To The Present – Brett M. Bennett And Gregory A. Barton

All Mapped Out: How Maps Shape Us – Mike Duggan

Behind The Privet Hedge: Richard Sudell, The Suburban Garden And The Beautification Of Britain – Michael Gilson

Who Killed Cock Robin?: British Folk Songs Of Crime And Punishment – Stephen Sedley And Martin Carthy

 

Riverrun

Every Living Thing: The Great And Deadly Race To Know All Life – Jason Roberts

 

Salt

Shadow Lines – Nicholas Royle

 

Sort Of Books

Cairn – Kathleen Jamie

 

There are some really good books coming out and if I had to say which one I am most excited about it would have to be Kathleen Jamie’s.

Any here that you like the look of? Let me know in the comments below.

3.5 out of 5 stars

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

What comes to mind for you when you see a swan? For me, there are several things. Firstly, they are sparklingly white, secondly they seem to glide effortlessly through the water, hardly making a ripple and thirdly they are absolutely bloody enormous!

Whilst I am always pleased to see a swan glide past on the River Stour near me, I am not as obsessed as Dan Keel is with this magnificent bird. They have enthralled and captivated him since boyhood and he has spent hours studying them to write about and more recently take photos of them.

This book is a finely crafted mix of his observations and encounters with the folklore, myths, art and culture of them. The chapter titles include The Aviator, The Lover and The Fighter. He expands on these subjects by keeping a diary of a swan nesting near him, describing how these birds fly and how they defend themselves in the wild.

I thought that this was really well done. If you are remotely interested in all of the wildlife that inhabits our ponds and rivers then the swan should be counted equally with birds like of the kingfisher. Keel has a passion for these huge birds and this is very evident in each chapter. There were lots of facts about swans that I was completely unaware of and he even busts some of the myths about them too. (They can’t break your arm!). I thought this was definitely worth reading.

4 out of 5 stars

I suspect that I am like most people, I try to recycle as much as I can, I have general recycling, a box for batteries and defunct electronics, bags for scrunchy and soft plastic and we have one of the hot bins that makes vegetable peelings into fine compost. But I still have to throw stuff in the regular bin, not everything can be recycled as yet sadly.

But what happens to that stuff that the council collects every other week? I suspect that I am like most people and think out of sight out of mind and move on to the next thing in my life. One man who wondered just what happened to the rubbish he and his family were creating was Oliver Franklin-Wallis, who decided to follow his nose for a story.

In this book he goes to the municipal waste sites in the UK, to see what the waste industry does with the tonnes of stuff we throw away. But this isn’t just a UK issue, the 8 billion of us in the world generate millions of tonnes of waste and a lot of this is shipped around the world to countries that have ended up dealing with it, so he heads out to Africa to see where the ultra-cheap clothes end up after people have worn them a handful of times and onto India to see the enormous landfill sites there and the people picking through the rubbish with the hope of scraping a living.

As well as following the rubbish trail, he looks at how companies are twisting some of the recycling that we think is doing good to their own ends and profit margins. It makes for quite shocking reading, but a little part of me isn’t surprised in some ways. He also makes a visit to Sellafield, passing the armed guards at the entrance to see what we are doing with the waste from nuclear plants. This deadly radioactive material still has the possibility of harming 300 generations later so what we do with it has to take into account a changing world. Terrifying stuff.

This is a really important book, even though it isn’t the most pleasant of reading material. Franklin-Wallis is a tenacious researcher, prepared to go where most won’t and isn’t afraid of asking difficult questions to those that he meets. He doesn’t always get the answers he is looking for, which in its own way speaks volumes. Well worth reading and I am so glad that this book doesn’t come with a scratch and sniff card…

4.5 out of 5 stars

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

Dervla Murphy is legendary in the genre of travel writing. The book she is best known for, Full Tilt, is the record of her ride from Ireland to India. It was something that she wanted to do from the age of 10 when the dual presents of a bicycle and an atlas gave her this idea. Because she had to look after her mother she wasn’t able to do this until the age of 32.

She kept a diary and was persuaded to write it up and send it to a guy called Jock Murray. The rest is history and this was the first of 27 books she wrote over the course of 50 years of her travels all over the world. She travelled simply, preferring to be on her trusty bike, Roz and relying on the hospitality of the people that she encountered on her journeys. Having a daughter didn’t stop her and Rachel would become a companion on her travels in later stories.

This book is a compilation of all the books that Murphy wrote. Crowley has separated the books out into the decades that they were written and picked her favourite passages from this book. For me, it shows two things, her evolution as a writer and the way she changes from somebody being amazed by all the things she saw to someone who became appalled by the poverty and injustices of the world.

If you are a fan of Dervla Murphy then I would say this is an essential addition to your collection. Highly recommended.

4 out of 5 stars

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

As people are discovering, the time spent walking in nature is not wasted at all. It gives you head space and connecting with the sights smells and sounds of the outdoors is good for you. Sadly the state of the wildlife in this country is pretty poor.

Discovering what is in your local area and repeatedly going back to see what changes on a daily or weekly basis is a way of getting a richer experience of the wild around you. This is what Nick Penny did, he took almost daily walks along a short stretch of the River Nene in Northamptonshire. The more time he spent there, the more he heard and saw. He has a particular interest in the Kingfisher, the iridescent blue bird that most people have never seen. But if you know where and how to look these amazing little birds are suddenly there.

This book is a diary of the sights and sounds of his walks along the river. There are days when he sees lots of activity and other days when not much happens, such are the trials of wildlife watching. But those days can still refresh the spirit and that comes across in his writing. But this is not just about the river, he heads out into the countryside in the hope of finding cuckoos and nightingales as well as getting up way too early to go and hear the dawn chorus.

I thought that this was a wonderful book. Penny has managed to capture the things that he saw and heard on a daily basis quite eloquently. I liked the diary form too, that record of everything that he saw, for me, has a sense of grounding and it shows what you can find if you take the time to discover to fully explore your local patch

As I sit writing this review, I am listening to the sounds that Penny has recorded of the birds throughout the year. He brings his knowledge as a musician to this book too, and the sounds that he has recorded of specific birds and some of the dawn and evening choruses that he heard whilst researching this book. You can follow the link in the book and I thought this gave an excellent extra dimension to his writing. I can recommend this, primarily for the inspiration that it has given me to go out and find out more about the nature where I live in Dorset.

Listen to the sounds here They are well worth it.

Call of the Kingfisher – Audio Recordings