Category: Review (Page 11 of 132)

4.5 out of 5 stars

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

I have been going to Cornwall for holidays for many years now. I think that it is quite a special place, with beautiful coasts and dramatic landscapes. The side I see has always been the tourist side. However, for those that live there, it is very different. Love the county, its landscape is bleak and dramatic or small and cosy – provided you know where to go.

They are overwhelmed with tourists for half the year, and when they all depart, the income dries up and they have to scratch a living until the next season. Even if you do manage to earn a living, the chances of being able to afford a home there now are very slim. The tsunami of second homeowners with plenty of cash to spare means that most properties have been priced out of the locals price range. This is a subject that has been written about in the excellent Undercurrent by Natasha Carthew.

The place is almost an island, the border of the Tamar rises in the north of the county leaving the peninsular to only be joined at the top and because of this it doesn’t quite feel like England. How we perceive it as outsiders has been fuelled by many things including writers who have given us the image of a wild land and people.

What the county is, is an enigma.

The people best placed to answer what the county now is are the Cornish. Tim Hannigan is a Cornish man who grew up and worked there, before heading off around the world to write guidebooks and who now lives in Ireland. This gives him a unique perspective on the place, seeing it from the outside with a travel writer’s eye and knowing what makes the place tick.

How we perceive the place is very much different from the reality, and he takes time to show that as he moves through the literary landscape as he zigzags across the county on his walk. Not only do you get a journal of what happens that day to him on his walk, but he digs through the history of the places that he walks, lifting gems from history and folklore to tell us about. I thought that the folklore stretched way into the past, but it seems that it was mostly invented by two gents in the 1800s!

Not quite English, always Cornish.

I thought that this was well worth reading. Hannigan manages to describe the modern enigma that is Cornwall perfectly. The writing is really good regardless of whether he is describing the walking, the places that he passes and the people that he meets or his own hinterland. This isn’t a romantic view of the county either, you can sense his pride in the county as he tells of the parts that he loves and is fiercely critical of some of the problems that the county finds itself in. You almost certainly have a view of what Cornwall is, but it is like a kaleidoscope, with different people seeing different things from their perspectives. And in some way, it is all of those things and not at the same time.

3.5 out of 5 stars

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

For too long we have cast aside nature, beating it into submission or just obliterating it, but the tide is turning and people are seeing that we cannot carry on like this forever as we will be deeply affected too. We are intrinsically linked to the natural world, after all, we are all part of the same ecosystem.

But where to begin? If you have been in a bookshop recently, you’ll have noticed that the range of nature books has grown exponentially over the past decade. This has been ably assisted by the Wainwright Prize. People became more aware of nature during the pandemic when they could head out on their sanctioned exercise and the sensory stimulation did them the world of good.

Nature’s Wonders is an introduction to the wonders that you can discover if you feel so inclined. The book is split into seasons and in each, Adams has selected various things to look out for in each. Some of these items are easier to find than others! So in spring, there are essays on bluebells, black caps and brimstone butterflies. In summer she suggests, chafers, foxgloves and taking the time to smell the scent of summer.

Autumn brings dramatic changes to the landscape and the essays include listening to the deer rut, the sound of the crickets in meadows and spotting the winter migrants such as fieldfares. Winter is the time for frosts and long shadows, but if you know where to look the last of winter brings out the celandines.

I really liked this book. If you are expecting in-depth guides on each of the fifty subjects that are written about in this book, then this is the wrong book to start with. Rather, it has been written to inspire people who are not sure about the natural world to take the time to go and find the things written about within and hopefully use it as a stepping stone to your own discoveries.

4 out of 5 stars

The act of pilgrimage was stopped in 1538 when Henry VIII banned it as he crushed the Catholic church just so he could marry someone he fancied. The act of walking as part of people’s faith was gone in this country. It still happens in Europe, there are many well-known routes that are still walked, even to this day.

The discovery of a map in the Bodleian Library showed a faint red line linking together the towns and villages of a route from Southampton to Canterbury. It had been long forgotten but was thought to be the recommended route people walked to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket. Given the almost complete lack of knowledge, the decision was taken to rename it the Old Way.

Having learnt about this pilgrim route, it was something that Gail Simmonds really wanted to do. It was walking over her favourite landscape, chalk downland and it was something that she felt that she wanted to undertake alone.

This is the story of her journey.

I really liked this travelogue of Simmonds’s modern pilgrimage from Southampton to Canterbury. It is split into four parts due to the various restrictions and lockdowns that took place at the time (remember those days?). This was more than a five-hundred-year-old route through, the landscape she is walking through is thousands of years old and if you know how and where to look, its secrets can be revealed. With her background in medieval history research into a locale is something that she is an expert at and in my opinion, Simmonds manages to get the right balance between the travel and history. Her writing feels that you are accompanying her on this walk rather than being given a list of things that happen on her journey. Can highly recommend this.

3.5 out of 5 stars

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

Of all the weathers that we experience, wind is the only one that we can hear and feel but not directly. I do think I can see the wind when I see trees being buffeted, or crows dancing in the wind. It is caused by the movement of air from one part of the planet to another, flowing from high-pressure points to low-pressure points in the search for equilibrium. Even though the air never stops moving, there are days when it can be utterly still and as blissful as they are surreal.

This flow of air around the planet affects everything. It creates waves, erodes mountains, moves vast quantities of dust from Africa to the Amazon and has created and formed economies and human culture. Along with earthquakes and volcanoes, winds in particular forms can be the most destructive things that we have on this planet. As a hurricane or typhoon, they can flatten buildings, toss cars in the air like confetti and as tornadoes, obliterate everything that they touch.

Humans have understood this phenomenon for millennia now. Wind has pressed it’s way into folklore and culture and has been used in warfare and has driven people mad.

I really liked this, the cultural history of wind is a wide-ranging subject that Pryke has managed to condense into this fascinating book. The prose feels authoritative without reading like an academic book. It is really nicely produced with high-quality pictures making it a fine addition to the Earth Series of books.

4 out of 5 stars

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

When a lot of people think about travel, the thought of pristine beaches in subtropical climes springs to mind or the hardy travel writer who is battling through some unexplored part of the globe. But travel writing can be just as relevant and interesting much closer to home.

In this book, Johno Ellison is very close to his home, in fact, he grew up alongside the River Wharf that is the subject of the book. It is a journey he had undertaken before many years ago, but for this, he wanted to retrace the route taken by Victorian author Edmund Bogg to see what had changed in the 120 years.

It is a fairly short river and he decides to wild cam for some of the route as well as popping in to see family and friends en route. He samples many beers in the pubs he passes including some that he frequented in his youth. As he was a local resident when growing up, there are lots of personal anecdotes that add depth to the walk and he explores the local folklore of the places that he walks through.

I really liked this. Learning about a tiny part of the UK that I knew almost nothing about was fascinating. He is an engaging writer too, filling the pages with the history of the river, an account of his walk. I did like that he made it clear in the text when he returned to fill in the gaps in the narrative; not all travel writers do that and sometimes it is glaringly obvious that they returned later. If you want a well-written book about a tiny part of Yorkshire then this is a good place to start.

5 out of 5 stars

I can’t remember quite how I first came across Roger Deakin, but according to my records, I first read Waterlog in 2008, a few years after it was published. I was astonished by how good a book it was. The guy could write. I did a little research to see what else he had written and it was then I discovered that he had died two years before.

However, there was another book that he had written and that would be out soon. There was news of another being brought together from his notes by his literary executor, Robert Macfarlane.

But who was this man who managed to conjure these wonderful books from the same letters and words we have? There was very little about him from what I could find.

Thankfully, that has been resolved with the new book that Patrick Barkham has pulled together from his archive and with the help of numerous other people. It is mostly in his own words too with lots of contributions from those that knew him at the different stages of his life.

It is a fascinating account of a man who could be warm and generous as well as reckless and demanding and difficult at the same time. As brilliant as he was, there were lots of flaws in his character. The other contributors to this life story are honest in their portrayal of Deakin. I thought it was quite refreshing to read some of these, as often biographies can sometimes be far too rose-tinted for my liking.

I you have read, Waterlog, Wildwood and Notes from Walnut Tree Farm, then I can highly recommend this, along with Life at Walnut Tree Farm.

5 out of 5 stars

Natasha Carthew is Cornish born and bred. Her family have a long history in the county too and were responsible for building most of the village that she was born and grew up in. She no longer lives there for a number of reasons the most significant is that she is not in a financial position to be able to afford a property there. There are villages now where no locals live, they are all owned by rich people with second homes or people who let them to the influx of summer visitors.

She had everything going against her growing up, poor female and also gay, she was one of the disposed people in the poorest county in the UK. They lived off her mum’s income, as her dad considered anything that he earnt to just be for him. He wasn’t around much either, having ducked responsibilities he was a womaniser and always had a girlfriend or two, one of whom moved into the flat above them with him at one point!

Her mum was resourceful and resilient though, always ensuring that Carthew and her sister were fed and looked after. They managed to move into the village to a slightly larger home, which helped a little. School was a struggle, mostly because she couldn’t see the point, but the chance finding of a leaflet with a course that really appealed to give her a path out of the vicious poverty circle she found herself in.

She went to the very edge of the abyss several times and the thing that kept her here then is the same thing that keeps her sane now and that is her writing

This is not an easy book to read by any means, it is an emotionally charged book full of raw prose and revelations of her upbringing. The is as much a personal memoir as it is a critique of the way that the Cornish have been abandoned by the UK government. High property prices because of the influx of second homeowners combined with low seasonal wages mean that most people born in Cornwall cannot afford to live there now. Whilst Carthew has come to terms with not being able to live in the place she chooses, many in the county are being forced out. It would be nice to think that those in power would read a book like this, but I somehow doubt they will. If you have read Lowborn by Kerry Hudson then this should be on your reading list too.

4 out of 5 stars

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

My first child was born over 22 years ago now. It was a fairly straightforward birth, but she wasn’t the easiest baby. Now she is a confident young woman who knows her mind. The thought of losing her just before she made an appearance is something that I really don’t know how I would cope with.

It happens though and one of those people that this tragedy happened to is William Henry Searle and his partner Amy. Their daughter was due around the end of July and until a few days before, everything seemed to be well with both mother and child. He wakes to find Amy holding her swollen tummy saying that she can’t feel any movement. She is pale and beginning to panic. They make the journey to Southampton Hospital rather quickly and after various medical examinations discover that their daughter has died in the womb.

Elowen would never know her parents and they would never know her.

To say this is a moving book is an understatement. He is angry and wants to know why it happened. Was it something that they did? Was there another problem that the scans and checks they do these days never picked up? He explores these and other questions as well as taking us through some of his own personal dark moments of grief.

He goes through the five stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. They do not happen one after another, instead, it is mixed in a swirl of emotions and other feelings. He is very open about his feelings about the loss of Elowen and the raw and heart-rending prose cut right through to me. It reminded me of this, where the grief never fades, rather it becomes part of your character.

I would be lying if I said this was a great book to read; it is and it also isn’t. Seeing the emotional strain of a couple who have lost a child is not going to be for the faint-hearted. This is a book written from the heart of a man who wanted to be a father and is mourning all that he lost. It is an important book though, to show that even though the process of grieving can be long, the energy can be found to be able to do other things in time.

5 out of 5 stars

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

Trees are hugely important for our global ecosystem, just how important though, we really don’t know fully. Research is always uncovering the ways that they work and the methods that they communicate amongst each other. They are some of the oldest living organisms on the planet too, with some individual trees reaching 4,00 years old and it is thought that some groups are many times older than that.

The book is split into nine sections such as Seeds, Soil, Saplings, Flowers & Fruits and Tree Time which have over sixty essays by authors such as Jessica J. Lee, Suzanne Simard, Robin Wall Kimmerer and Robert Macfarlane. There are even the lyrics from a song that Holten has applied her wonderful tree font to. The essays are varied and interesting though, as with any collection, I did have some favourites.

This is one of the most beautiful books I have read this year. The fine gold detail on the cover is exquisite. But couple that with the pale cream pages and the rich green ink used throughout, the whole thing is a work of art. Holten’s Tree Alphabet used to highlight the writing she has drawn from numerous sources is the icing on the cake. She uses this for the titles of the essays and to introduce each section. What I did like was the ways that some of the short essays have been entirely recreated in this wonderful font, the pages move from small copses and sometimes dense woodland.

4 out of 5 stars

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

Lewen Weldon was in Marseilles en-route home for his biannual leave. For the previous fourteen years, he had been mapping the deserts of Egypt. But the UK has just declared war on Germany and started what would become First World War.

He had a particular set of skills, including being a fluent Arabic speaker, that the intelligence services knew they could use and they had a very important role for him. He was to run a network of spies behind the Turkish lines dropping them by boat and interviewing locals who were sympathetic to the allies and their strategic aims.

The book was written from his diary of the time and it is almost like reading a report with embellishments. But it is those additions that bring it to life as a book. There are details about the mundane parts of the job and the terror of being bombed whilst in the harbour and torpedoed.

How the book came back into publication too has an interesting back story.  I am glad it has been brought back as I thought that it was a fascinating book. Weldon gives a great insight into the job of running agents in enemy territory. It is written in a clipped mater of fact style which is very detailed about who he met with and where, but he also manages to convey just how tense it was in the area when they were carrying out these operations, in particular at night. Well worth reading.