Category: Review (Page 130 of 132)

No Way But Gentlenesse: A Memoir of How Kes, My Kestrel, Changed My Life by Richard Hines
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Richard Hines is a Yorkshire man through and through. Raised in, Hoyland Common, mining was the chosen career of his father and grandfather and many of the men in the village. He remember sliding down heaps of waste, hearing of accidents in the pit; knowing that his father would open the door the same time after a shift; there was that dread in the stomach that came when he was late. Sitting the eleven plus exam, it was hoped that he would pass and follow his brother Barry to grammar school. He failed and entered the local secondary modern school; a place that sought to crush the spirit and hopes of all children it was supposed to be teaching.

Despondent because of the cruel antics of the teachers and the system, Richard spent time walking the fields beyond the slag heaps. It was whilst walking the grounds of a ruin he saw a kestrel fly into its nest. Spellbound by the sight, it motivated him to head to the library to discover more on the ancient sport of falconry. They wouldn’t lend him the book, so he ended up buying that and many others as he devoured every piece of information he could about raptors. Having read everything it was time to find a hawk, and a friend of his came up trumps bringing him his first kestrel; Kes. Just from the information in these books he trained his bird, from the very first stages to flying it with lures.

If the name Kes is familiar, there was a film of the same name about a boy learning to love nature and training his kestrel. The film was based on the book, A Kestrel for a Knave written by one Barry Hines, Richards brother. Richard was employed on the film to train the actor and the three kestrels required for all the filming.

This is a fine quality memoir, full of gentle, lyrical prose. It is a sad book to read too; he didn’t have that educational opportunity that his brother did, ending up at the secondary modern, future potentially dashed. Life as the son of a miner was tough too, you never knew if you would see your father again when he left for work in the morning. The descriptions of the natural world that surrounded the man made waste from the mine make for good reading too. Mostly this is about the birds; that you can take a creature that is so very wild, and with persuasion and gentle coercion make it respond to your commands.

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The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like his father before him, Stevens is a butler, a career chosen for service and dedication to the highest in the land. Working for Lord Darlington in between the World Wars, he offered loyalty and discretion as various high-powered guests met to discuss the increasing perilous situation in Europe.

Post war the social landscape has changed dramatically. Stevens is still the butler at Darlington Hall, but his master is now a rich American, Mr Farraday. Stevens is encouraged by him to take a brief break, and offers to lend him his car for a motoring holiday. It is ideal timing as Stevens has recently received a letter from a past colleague, Miss Kenton, and sees it as an ideal opportunity to pay her a visit. As he travels through Wilshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall enjoying the sights and countryside he takes time to consider various matters; his service to Lord Darlington, the relationship that he had with his father and his housekeeper.

It is a melancholy story, full of subtlety whilst still having profound meaning and depth. The main character, Stevens, is the quintessentially English butler, composed and proficient; but whilst he can say the right words he lacks feeling and empathy because of his upbringing and career. I am not sure just how he does it, but Ishiguro has managed to capture the class distinctions perfectly in this book. Possibly because he has an outsider’s perspective on how society at the time functioned, or didn’t, and understands the minutia and restraint that a member of the household has to have whilst dealing with the great and the good. It is equally about what isn’t said and happens between the two main characters as it is about what actually happens, and it is impressive just how much emotion can be wrung out of such restrained prose. Good stuff.

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The Travelers by Chris Pavone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Will Rhodes has an almost perfect job. He is an award winning correspondent for The Travelers, an upmarket travel magazine catering to the super rich. His latest assignment is at a luxury hotel in Argentina nestled beneath the Andes; it means that he is sampling fine wine and superb food, and watching the polo. But what starts as an innocent flirtation with a pretty girl he recognises from elsewhere, suddenly becomes far more deadly, and he realises that he has been the target of an operation.

You can read the rest of the review here

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Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The New Yorker’s readers demand the highest standards of copy, and Mary Norris has been of of those editors for the past three decades giving the readers what they demand. Having sharpened all her pencils, she now brings us her take on the newspaper business and the (American) English language. Working her way through the most common language issues, such as spelling, commas, when to swear, and when not to. She investigates the less common punctuation, extols the use of the hyphen – excessively perhaps and contemplates the genders. Drawing from classic works by Dickens and Melville and reasonably up to date works by Flynn and Wallace she aims to enlighten us in the ways and foibles of our language, from the Oxford comma to the apostrophe that wanders up and down the word depending on the profession.

This is not a bad read overall; it is fairly short, light hearted and informative and she writes with a gentle humour. Whilst she goes in to the minutiae of language with regards to punctuation, it is very much centred on the The New Yorker and her work there. There are some good parts, the chapter on profanity is quite amusing, her ventures into the historical reasons behind certain word uses and her penchant for a particular type of pencil. It is almost trying to do too much; is it a memoir of her work at the paper or a book on language? I’m still not sure. Worth reading, but if you are looking for a book on the delights of language, pop it back on the shelf.

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The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Originally published in 1925, this book by Alfred Watkins bought the concept of ley lines to the public. The concept came to him after visiting a Roman excavation and looking at the map to get a perspective on the wider landscape, he saw that a number of features seemed to line up. When he had the opportunity to get to higher ground he had the opportunity to look at the landscape and see that these features had straight paths running between them. He came to believe that the people of this country had made a series of straight paths through the forests with the prominent features being used for guide and navigation.

He first presented this theory of leys at a public meeting in 1921, and went on to develop his theories to present in this book. Controversial at the time, the Antiquity magazine refused to publish even an advert for his book, it captured the imagination of the public. He was an excellent PR man, using pagan rites to demonstrate and promote his work, and it inspired generations of readers and walkers to take a closer look at the country that they walked through. The concept of lines passing over hill and dale were picked up by those seeking to rediscover the the mysticism and ancient ways of the Celts and re-enchant the English landscape.

There was only one flaw though; none of it was really true. It can be proven that given the sheer quantity of ancient and prehistorical sites in the landscape that the chances of them lining up is as much coincidence as it is design. This page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_lin… shows just how a random collection of 137 sites can give 80 or so four point alignments. Richard Atkinson, an archaeologist, has even proved that red telephone boxes could produce their own leys by lining up.

Theories aside, this is still worth reading. Firstly, it is a classic piece of text on the English landscape. Secondly, the eloquent and atmospheric text and the black and white images and maps that are liberally scattered throughout the book giving us a snapshot of the English countryside between the two world wars before big farms and pylons spoilt some of the finest views. At the time the science of excavation was starting to change and improve, Watkins may have prompted people to look at and discover the genuine links between sites in the wider context of the landscape.

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Cold Blood: Adventures with Reptiles and Amphibians by Richard Kerridge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To say that Richard Kerridge is fascinated by reptiles would be an understatement.

It is an obsession.

This obsession is one that he has had since childhood, from watching early wildlife programmes that showed all manner of animals from the exotic continent of Africa. Back then, he collected and caught all manner of small creatures and reptiles for the zoo that he had in his room and back garden. As he collected the frogs and toads, newts and lizards, grass snakes and even foolishly an added, it fuelled a desire to learn all about these animals. He is still asking questions about them today.

Kerridge has written a book that is partly a guide to these creatures, partly a journal about our relationship with nature and partly a personal memoir of his escapades with his friends and his tumultuous relationship with his father. It is packed to the gills with facts and details of these absorbing creatures, and thankfully is no less readable because of it. What he also brings to life is the differences between then and now. These days you cannot disturb a lot of the animals, let alone pick them up, without a licence from somewhere or other, that is if you can get a child away from a screen and outside to see them in their natural habitat. It is a well researched and written book, and what you most appreciate when reading this, is his enthusiasm for his cool subjects.

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Wild by Nature: From Siberia to Australia, Three Years Alone in the Wilderness on Foot by Sarah Marquis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wild by Nature is the account of the 10,000 mile hike that Sarah Marquis made across Mongolia, China, Siberia, Laos, Thailand before a journey on a cargo ship and then a further walk across the Australian Outback. Whilst she had backup and sponsors, Sarah undertook this walk solo. Not only is this a huge physical achievement, she had to stay sharp whilst facing thieves, drug dealers, tropical diseases, lethal wildlife, life threatening illnesses and natives who were not always best pleased to see a foreigner. She had to cope with freezing temperatures in the Gobi desert, scorching temperatures in the Australian deserts, being blasted by the winds on the Mongolian Steppe and survived some unbelievable thunderstorms.

It is quite an challenge for anyone to undertake, but for a single woman in some of these countries it is even more of a trial. This is not her only achievement wither; she has walked 23 countries in total; earning herself the National Geographic’s title of Adventurer of the Year. She is tenacious and stubborn, two qualities that you need to push yourself to the physical and mental limits that a walk like this demands, but there are times even for her when it all seems too much. But I think that there are a few things that let it down a little, one is that her journey seems to jump around somewhat without following any logical route. I would expect a journey of this type to flow nicely, but it doesn’t. You got a good sense of her emotional highs and lows, but it was also difficult to connect to her as a reader at times. This is one worth reading if you like walking books, but could have been much better.

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The Bees by Laline Paull
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Flora 717 is on the bottom rung of the hive. Given the lowest task of ensuring it is clean she has only three orders.

Accept, obey and serve.

She, like her sisters, are prepared to sacrifice everything for their beloved Queen. But Flora has skills that mark her out as different from a regular sanitation worker; normally it would ensure that she would be eliminated. Trusted enough to feed the newborn bees, she begins her ascent of the strict hierarchy in the hive, and becomes a forager collecting the life giving nectar. But this simple bee also holds a secret; a desire to break the most sacrosanct of laws in the hive, one that her enemies would use against her without any hesitation.

There were a few things that I liked about this; the dystopian feel of the book; the totalitarian society and strict etiquettes of the bees, and the sole protagonist (can you call a bee that?) who sets out to fulfil her yearning. But it didn’t quite do it, for me. The plot wasn’t too bad, but even with the twists felt a little predictable and it felt a lot like Animal Farm by Orwell, where it is alien and familiar at the same time. It was a shame really as other have really liked it and I thought that I would too. 2.5 stars overall.

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Terra by Mitch Benn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Most aliens think that the earth is doomed. None of them can understand why we are so intent on ruining our only planet, especially as we haven’t developed the technology to get of it safely They are not going to help us either; can you imagine the chaos that would cause! One alien thinks that the earth is worth studying, partly for the places and partly for the other creatures; just not for the humans.

The Bradbury’s were driving home whilst mid argument, as usual, and really weren’t expecting the lemon coloured and shaped spaceship to suddenly appear in front of them. Terrified, Mr Bradbury crashes the car. The parent’s climb out and run away as fast as they can. The alien discovers a child in the car. He decides that she need rescuing; from there, from Rrth and from humanity, and he decides to break every rule in the non-contact recommendations and takes her home.

Eight orbits later, Terra was about to enter formal education. As the only human on the planet Fnrr this was going to be very strange, very strange indeed. This is a time of change too, as the extraordinary world ofFnrr spirals into a terrible war.

Mitch Benn is best known for his funny songs and stand-up comedy, and this is his first venture into the realm of the novel. He has drawn on inspiration from various people, including Gaiman, Pratchett and Douglas Adams, whilst still ensuring that his own humour and voice stands out strongly. The concept of the human being the alien is a great one, and he has given her a plot that works really well too. It is definitely aimed at the younger audience, but that doesn’t make it any less readable or enjoyable. Great debut.

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The Fish Ladder: A Journey Upstream by Katharine Norbury
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Norbury has always been missing something from her past. She had been abandoned as a baby in a convent just outside Liverpool and had been adopted into a loving family. She had never been able to settle completely wandering and moving around the globe. Whilst living in Spain she miscarried, losing a long hoped for sibling for her eldest daughter Evie. Grief for the loss the child and of what might have been turned into an introspective look at herself, and the germination of an idea to follow a river from mouth to source. Moving back to the UK meant that she was closer to family and could start to develop this idea fully. Hoping that the walk will distract her from the grief, a life changing event means that she has to try to find her birth mother who she hopes will have some of the answers to her questions.

Norbury has drawn inspiration from several genres to write this book. Weaving travel, natural history, poetry and mythology it is also a very personal memoir. It is quite an emotive read too, with the highs and lows of family and life laid bare. The writing is poetic, lyrical and at times dreamlike and ethereal, almost with a imagined quality. Her writing is when she is describing the natural world and landscape is very evocative too; you could be standing alongside her. Painful to read at times, you live with her trials and tribulations, but she is tenacious in the face of everything. Enjoyable generally, but occasionally felt a touch fictional. Would definitely read more by her though. 3.5 stars.

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