Category: Review (Page 6 of 132)

3.5 out of 5 stars

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

Normally memoirs follow a timeline of events in a person’s life, with some flashbacks to add context. However, this memoir is unlike any other memoir that I have read before. Instead, it is a collection of figments and fragments of memories written in short essays, poems and snippets of prose.

He recalls the memories from his childhood when his mother separated from his father. He moved in with his new stepdad and hated being there to begin with, but slowly he got used to it. There are stories of love lost and gained as he heads off with an on / off girlfriend to the place where every young couple is making out; the beach. He soon discovers that sand gets everywhere…

Forest fires are a common occurrence in the region. He notes that people either stop and stare at the flames in fear or are captivated by them. There are those that are moved to warn others and pass buckets of water in the vain hope of extinguishing the flames. I didn’t know this, but it is an ancient country; there are dolmens in the hills from thousands of years ago. They are near pine forests where men occasionally go to kill themselves.

There are some real gems in here. I particularly like what he did when taking photos of tourists who were full of self-entitlement. However, as much as this book is about him and his experiences, he manages to capture the essence of Catalonia in this short book. It is a region of Europe that isn’t quite Spain and isn’t quite France but has its own strong identity in the region that crosses the border. I liked the mix of pieces in here, the longer essays work well with the shorter prose. I did feel that I didn’t get to know the author that well in this book, I only got to see glimpses of him in this kaleidoscope of his life. Well worth reading though

 

Three Favourite Essays

A Woman’s Death

Scriptorium

A Rough Calligram of a Silhouette of my Town

3.5 out of 5 stars

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

I laugh every time I see the Calvin & Hobbs cartoon above as it tells me two truths about our endless fascination with the possibility of life somewhere in this vast universe;

1. Given a lot of the really dumb things that we do as a species so are we actually that intelligent?
2. If there were some super bright entity that is capable of interstellar travel, why would it be interested in the likes of us?

It was something that Douglas Adams alluded to when one lot of aliens turned up but wanted to take the whales…

This fascination of life being out there somewhere has captivated scientists for hundreds of years, all the way back to Galileo and Copernicus. But as scientific understanding grew of how life appeared on this planet and the way it fluctuates from masses of plants, insects and large creatures to extinctions and back again with a different type of life adapts to the changed conditions.

The discovery of other planets orbiting stars in the ‘Goldilocks zone’ that might, just might, have the right conditions based on what we know about the Earth has driven research, intensive scanning of the heavens and intense speculation of what might or might not be out there.

We have not found any evidence of life outside this small blue dot that we’re on. However, there is speculation still that some of the moons around the planets in the solar system might. As you’d expect, the question as to whether there is life elsewhere doesn’t really get answered in this book, but that is not the whole point of it, this is an exploration of what they might be like if we were to come across another species.

Green has split the book up into six chapters, Origins, Planets, Animals, People, Technology and Contact, and in each draws from science and science fiction as to the things that life is capable of creating. I have always had an interest in it since I downloaded the SETI program many years ago. Strangely enough, I didn’t find any signals from any aliens when running that software, but the possibility that I might keep me interested for a long time. I thought that this was a very accessible book on a subject that I had not read much about before. Worth reading if you have an interest in the possibilities of life.

I like doing these as it gives me time to reflect on what I have and haven’t achieved over the past twelve months, what is working and what isn’t. It is often why certain things stay the same and there are tweaks to certain intentions. This is why I call them intentions too, they are not hard and fast rules to stick by, the main intention is to read and enjoy it rather than obsessively trying to reach targets. I have reduced the number of books I read last year and will be sticking to the same target of 150 (ish). This I can cope with, given everything that has gone on this year and still isn’t over, reading 150 books over a year is much less stressful than 190 unsurprisingly…

My rule of thumb is to read whatever takes your interest, don’t be told what to read. If you have been recommended something and don’t like it, then stop. Make your own reading journey. Not everyone can like the same book and as strange as it sounds, everyone reads a slightly different book!

I have been thinking about supporting a charity that is aiming to get books into people’s hands who for whatever reason do not have the opportunity to get them. I like the sound of what Bookbanks, are doing and will see if I can support them in a small way next year.

 

Blogging

As I said last year, I have always tended to think of myself as a reader who blogs rather than just a book blogger. I have never had a huge following on social media, there are some out there who have 100K followers which is just staggering. I tend to have a niche reading interest, which may reflect my much lower following too. It has changed since I started, even what I thought were popular bloggers seems to have slipped from the limelight. Probably because everyone seems to be chasing the latest trends. I have never been that fashionable so I will keep doing what I am doing.

 

Books

Review Books

I am forever grateful for every single review copy that I receive. I am making a concerted plan to work through all of the review books that I have been sent and much reducing the number that I request still further. That said, I would be delighted to receive some of the books that were on my anticipated list… However, it is not a deal breaker, books that I really want to read I can get from the library or buy if necessary. I am hoping to read and review at least 60 books next year from that list.

 

My Own Books

I have been cataloguing the books that I have in the past few months, and have found numerous duplicates. Some I am keeping for one reason or another and I have passed on quite a lot so far. There are a few more to go, so keep an eye on my social media channels. The plan is to buy fewer books (HA!!) and I have been keeping a tally of book that came in and left the house for good. I can share those figures in my 2024 review, they are quite scary!

 

Library Books

I have got further down on the number of library books that I have out on both cards and have just under one shelf now. There is going to be a bit of a bump as the books I have reserved a while back finally turn up but I am aiming to get it to around 30 fairly soon.

 

Reading Plans

I am fairly happy with the mix of books that I am reading at the moment. I feel that I got the balance right between travel writing and natural history books last year, but as these make up the bulk of my collection, then I want to read more of them. I also want to read more science fiction and fiction, because, hey, why not? I also have some other intentions detailed below, that whilst not set in stone, I would like to achieve.

 

Themed Reads

This was an idea that I had a little while back, to pick a theme each month and read three or four books on that chosen subject from my gargantuan TBR. So next year I am going to do it. Here are the themes that I have picked for 2025.

Architecture

Art

Business / Economics

Environment

Food & Drink

History

Language

London

Maths

Memoir

Venice

Walking

 

Female Authors

I am going to keep my target of reading women authors at 40% for 2025.

 

Ethnic Minority Authors

I had my target set to 12 last year and I am going to set the same again for 2025. Slowly more ethnic minority authors are being commissioned in the genres that I like reading, but it is sadly too few still.

 

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Aiming again to average at least one a month for this. Science fiction is good for expanding the mind and as Terry Pratchett says: Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.

 

Fiction

I don’t read or buy a huge amount of fiction, but I do have a lot around that I have acquired or been sent. This year I am going to make an effort to read at least one fiction book a month. I probably won’t review them, but it depends on the book.

 

Poetry

I am aiming to read one poetry book a month this year again.

 

Literary Awards

Last year I was a bit better at reading some of the shortlisted books from my favourite prizes (as usual). I did manage to read some from the minor prizes too, but still have a long list of books that I haven’t quite got to read yet… The same list of prizes from last year:

Wainwright

Stanford

Royal Society

Baillie Gifford

Arthur C Clarke

I would like to read some of the winners from other prizes too, including:

The Republic Of Consciousness Prize

Rathbones Folio Prize

Women’s Prize for Fiction

Jhalak Prize

The Portico Prize

 

Challenges

I have concluded that challenges are great but they can distract me from reading the backlog that I have. I am going to stick to the 20 books of summer as I use that to clear a particular genre. I read fiction in 2024 and I am aiming to read science fiction for 2025.

 

The World From My Armchair Challenge

My ongoing challenge is to read a travel book set in or that passes through every country, sea and ocean in the world. I did slightly better at this in 2024 as I read four books for the challenge. I have twelve lined up for this and there will be an update on a blog post sometime in the first part of the year.

 

20 Books of Summer

This is run by the blogger, Cathy of 746 books. I normally sign up to read 20 books and will do so again this summer. I did manage to read all 20 books this year too, but finished the last well into autumn!

 

Other Bookish Stuff

Cataloguing Books

I am still cataloguing books! I have completed all nine that were in the original post, and have added in two more with another about to be filled soon. I have 2610 according to my spreadsheet and 312 of those are signed. According to the list I have read 882 and not read 1727! I thought I had read more of them than that!!! The spreadsheet is set up with a shelf number so I can find books when I need them!

 

Spreadsheets

I wrote about this back in 2023 here. I have now made further refinements and will write another post about these changes early next year. (It was going to be this year, and  I have the notes to type up, but not done it yet). My main master sheet works so much better than before!

 

Bookshelves

I wrote a blog post showing all my shelves here. I have drawn up a plan for what genre of books that I want on what shelf and still have not sorted it out! There are gaps on the shelves that I need to start shuffling around based on the plan. Let me know if you want to see more of my bookshelves in a blog post.

 

Planning Matrix

To try and get a grip on what books I want to read and when I have started to do things on what I call a Planning Matrix. Yes, it’s another spreadsheet and it is based on the set-up that I have developed, but uses a grid to collate what categories a particular book fits. I am finding it quite useful so far. If you want to hear more about it, let me know and I will include it in the spreadsheet post next year.

 

What aims or intentions do you have for next year? Let me know in the comments below or post a link to your post on your blog.

 

4 out of 5 stars

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

It was an inauspicious start, an advert in  the Agony column of The Times. It read:

Exploring and sporting expedition, under experienced guidance, leaving England June, to explore rivers Central Brazil, if possible ascertain fate Captain Fawcett; abundance game, big and small; exceptional fishing; ROOM TWO MORE GUNS; highest references expected and given. – Write Box X, The Times, EC4

He wrote for particulars and after a little consideration, applied and was selected. His main qualifications were his age, 24 and his school, Eton.

They departed and undertook a fairly uneventful trip on a liner to Brazil. They had a telegram asking them not to undertake the search for Fawcett, with the threat of legislation being passed to hinder them. They stopped at Lisbon, Madeira and Tenerife and not having the strongest sea legs, he found the trip to be full of tedium. Nine days later they arrived at Rio as the sun was setting. Officials boards the ship to examine passports where they encounter the mind numbing pedantry of the minor official. They were eventually allowed to depart and readied themselves to depart to San Paulo in the morning.

Reader, they didn’t…

They finally departed after several false starts and lots of procrastination. The guy who was their main contact was Major Pringle. One morning there were two cars there to take them and a lorry had been provided for their baggage. The description of the journey sounded terrifying. Though I am not sure what was worse, the local driver heading towards them at full speed or the bridges they were crossing. It was an alien place, though he noted that the birds seemed familiar and yet utterly different at the same time. They would take lunch at different places on the trip, but invariably it was the same, rice and beans with roast meats.

Their first main stop is in Goyaz. It is a strange place where not much happens and even that happens very slowly. They end up becalmed there for a while and Fleming begins to suspect that their fixer, Major Pringle isn’t as committed to their quest as they had been led to believe. Fleming sets about trying to prove this with a false despatch that he had written for the papers back in the UK and getting Major Pringle to approve it. After another wait, they were finally allowed to proceed into the jungle.

There is a short journey by road again and they finally get to board the boats that will take them into the jungle. The batloa were 30′ clinker boats that leaked lots. They learned to settle into a routine, mostly to relieve the monotony of spending three weeks in a small boat. Fleming is amazed by the birds and wildlife that she sees from the gunwale.

They come across some of the Carajas Indians. Fleming admires certain parts of their features and describes a little of their life, but does note that they are staying with them and he isn’t seeing them in their camp, so his perception of them is skewed a little. He is entranced by the giant otters of the Amazon two of which they capture. They see alligators frequently on the river and in the spirit of the time, shoot a few…

The expedition is left in the lurch when Major Pringle has a change of heart over his commitments to the expedition and quits it to head back downstream in the smallest canoe. They were going to have to go it alone in the jungle searching for traces of Fawcett.

Since the dawn of time (whenever that was) this patch of the earth’s crust had been green and empty; it was green and empty still. Aeons had passed there unregarded. And now here were we, stealing minutes under the nose of eternity, counting our pretty swag in a place where a century was hardly legal tender. In all this there was a comforting sense of the ridiculous.

They decided to split the expedition into two; one half was going to continue on the rive and Flaming would join the land party. They come across another tribe called the Tapirapes. They are as curious about their Western visitors as Fleming’s party is about them. It was as Fleming was trying to get to sleep one night that he realised how futile the drive to find these three men who had disappeared seven years before, was. It wasn’t going to stop him though.

Progressing through the jungle was hard work though. Most of the time it was impenetrable and they could only move after a lot of frenzied macheting. They come across another river and camp and eat well. Another of the party is not well enough to carry on, so he heads back with the Indians who have accompanied them on their journey so far. In the end the jungle won, so they decided that the easiest way to progress was to wade up the river. (As can be seen on the cover of this edition).

They reach a point where they can’t really proceed any further because of the river. An enormous storm is a reminder of the power of nature and they make the sensible decision to turn back. It is a decision that Fleming knows saved their lives.

They return to the mission base and catch up with Major Pringle. He was still angry for various reasons, but not as angry as Fleming was when he found out that Pringle had not forwarded on the missives that he had written for the Times. Pringle hadn’t opened them, but he didn’t trust the contents so he heads off to the British consul, where he hope that his reputation can be kept. Fleming’s part ends up chasing him along the river in another boat with the intent of getting there before him. The race is on…

I thought that this was a really enjoyable travel book. You can tell that Fleming is a child of the British Empire with some of his prejudices, but generally he is sympathetic to the Brazilians, in particularly the Amazon natives. It is a great example of how not to plan an expedition. They took lots of unnecessary risks and were stitched up by their local fixer. All of these things contributed to it nearly becoming as big a disaster as Fawcett’s expedition.

Fleming is a good writer too and this is an engaging travel book with quite a lot of jeopardy! Though how he compares to his brother Ian, I have no idea as I have not read any of his. Another fine addition to the Eland catalogue

3 out of 5 stars

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

Some people are born to climb mountains

Phil Gribbon is one of those people. He has a hugely impressive CV; he has over 100 first alpine ascents of mountains in the Arctic, has led expeditions in Greenland, America and Canada; has written for various illustrious publications and was awarded the Polar medal. Somehow he also had time to be a physics professor.

This book is a series of essays of his recollection of climbs and expeditions that he undertook over a number of years. Some of the essays are several pages long and others are just over a page. There are photos in the centre of the book and they have included sketches made by Gribbon throughout the book.

I thought that this was an interesting book. There are moments of exhilaration and awe that he feels as he makes his climbs. But these expeditions can be dangerous and he writes about a couple of tragic events – a reminder that however prepared and experienced that you are, it may not be enough.

His prose is crisp and he writes in a matter-of-fact style, as well as a bone-dry humour and a very healthy respect for the place that he is climbing. If you are looking for a book that is full of superlatives and eloquent prose about the mountains, then this might not be the book for you. Instead, it is recollections of memorable climbs that he has undertaken all over the world.

It is only a small thing, but I wasn’t keen on having the synopsis and who’s who at the beginning of the book in two different sections, I personally would have preferred the intro and context at the beginning of each essay. flipping back and forwards to see who was with him in each was a little tiresome.

That aside, if you have a love of mountains then this should be on your reading list.

4 out of 5 stars

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

In the Spring of 2023, Ros Belford was back in Salina. A tiny island just off the coast of Sicily. It had been a while since she had been there, but the memories of that time came flooding back fully, when she stood outside the house she lived in with her daughters. The thought of breaking in as she had to do when she had forgotten her key, crosses her mind. She would love to see what the inside is like now and to bring back more memories. She doesn’t. But she does find a stone her daughters had painted of the volcano they could see from the house. She picks that up and walks away

Her earlier memories were from 2004 when her circumstances changed; splitting up from the father of her girls and a paid opportunity to update a guidebook meant that she could take them to Italy, a place she loves so much. The first trip was to Sicily and then on to Favignana. Their arrival in Sicily is an assault on the senses; the noise and the smells, the hot air blowing their hair from the open car window as it hurtles down the motorway to Trapani to catch the hydrofoil to Favignana. They arrive and just need to find somewhere to live.

She finds a room in Villa Antonella. It will do for the short term, but she needs to rent somewhere as the budget will not stretch to a hotel room for the duration. They settle into life on the island and start to get to know people.

Belford finds a suitable and affordable place to rent and moves in one evening after hurriedly buying bedding. Within a few days, it feels like home with toys and clothes strewn about the house. Life begins to feel normal once again, developing routines that fit their life there. They stay for the summer and then another opportunity to update a guidebook for Sicily comes up. When they are on the way over there, her daughter asks what those specs in the distance are. It turns out that they are the Aeolian islands and the memory of a conversation with a food critic surfaces, they loved the island of Salina.

She knew they had found their next place to live.

They travel the island on the bus, watching the raptors hanging in the air, noting the colours in the landscape as they pass. In the distance is the island of Stromboli with smoke rising from its active conical volcano. The bus driver tells them they may be able to see the lava at night.

She meets Emma, an English lady who had moved to the island to marry someone. It is the start of a long friendship. It feels, as the bus driver said, that the island has found them. As they get to know the locals, someone recommends a property to rent. It is a bit of a mess, but the view from the terrace is what sells it to her. Belford knows they will be happy there.

I really liked this book about the tiny islands of Sicily. It brought back happy memories of a holiday we had on the island in 2019. Belford’s writing is evocative, painting a picture of the landscape and the rich tapestry of life on this island. I liked the addition of two essays by her daughters at the end of the book too. They appreciated what their mother had done for them in their formative years and how living there had shaped their own lives for the good. I thought this was well worth reading.

Similar Recommendations
Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes
A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle

4 out of 5 stars

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

Family members can be really hard to read. They often deal with some injustice that the author wishes to set the record straight on, or they can be a whimsical recount of a particular episode and the memories and subsequent events that happened. And then you come across memoirs like this one that haven’t been written with a specific aim in mind. They contain and reveal so much about the joy and pain of life, love and family.

The first thing that Malaney did when taking his partner to the family home was to take her to the bog. It is not the smallest room in the house, but the bog that was past his grandparent’s house and over some very wet ground to the sheer wall of peat. It is not the most auspicious start, but it sets the tone of the book. The first chapter is about the sounds he hears when he is down there. Mostly, the sound of the wind, from the gentle breeze that barely can be heard to the howling gales that have come in from the Atlantic.

He begins to record there, taking his inspiration from Richard Skelton and Pat Collins and the way that they use sound in their art. Returning to Ireland after some time away he sees that his grandfather, John Joe is beginning to fade away. He starts to record his grandfather’s voice secretly. They are not high-quality recordings but they are what he will have to remember the sound of his voice.

He thinks that there must have been members of his family in the same spot for at least 200 years, but the written records are a little sketchy. The home he lived in and his grandparent’s house and land became the stamping ground with his brothers and cousins and the neighbour’s kids. It was a place that they could just be. They built huts, made music and became their own people. The family memories also draped over this landscape became part of his personal hinterland.

All of the chapters are like this; a sense of belonging to that place he grew up in regardless of where in the world he happens to be. He has chosen a career that is culturally rewarding, but sadly not financially so. His grandfather is admitted to hospital in Dublin and he is back in the country and gets to see him more often. He notes that he is fading away because of his dementia.

Some of these essays are fragmented, snatched as they float through his memories, and others are heartfelt, more considered pieces that he has taken a long time writing. I found this to be a very moving book. Not only is Maleney a quality writer, but he draws deeply from his emotions to convey all the feelings he has about life as he finds it.

He writes about this little patch of Ireland beautifully too, describing its bleakness in a beautiful, tender way.I found that the way he writes about death is not morbid:

‘Death was the removal of a person from the flow of time’

I had never thought about it in that way before, but it made complete sense.

If you want to read a different type of memoir, that might give you a different outlook on life after, then this is a great book to start with.

5 out of 5 stars

The Moleskine notebook that I originally drafted this review in, I have been using on and off since 2015 when the first entry was on my birthday that year. It was one of three Star Wars-themed notebooks that I bought in a sale in a bookshop. I have about 30 pages to go to fill it up and then I can pick from one of the many <number redacted> notebooks that I have bought since then…

It wasn’t used that often when I first got it and now it comes everywhere with me. I draft reviews, write lists, make notes, and occasionally doodle and it has become an external part of my brain.

I had never really thought about where this little block of folded paper came from or where it began, but having seen this book was coming out and having read a number of books on stationary before it made me wonder when and where the notebook began. It is a subject that fascinated Roland Allen too and he decided to research and write a book about it.

The introduction starts with the creation of the book that I first wrote this in, the Moleskine. The original was a notebook made by a Parisian bookseller and made famous by Chatwin and Hemmingway and was reinvented. The modern version is now a world-famous brand used by lots of people around the world. I didn’t know this, until I went to Paris in 2024, that there are even Moleskine shops there!

His research has uncovered the first known recordings of these hand little aid memories and how they were first used by Italian merchants for recording sales and ledgers. He talks through the various paper and binding technologies that have been used through the Middle Ages and the different materials used since then.

There are chapters on famous notebook users and the legacy they left behind for us to study. There are chapters on travel writers, artists and sailors and how our European friends used them before bringing them to the UK.

Each chapter is short, engaging and full of fascinating facts. With this, he mixes personal anecdotes and gems that he has come across in his research. It doesn’t feel like an academic tome either, probably because he is a notebook user and diarist himself. If you have a thing about quality stationary, then this will be a perfect book for you.

 

I can also recommend:

Paper: An Elegy by Ian Sanson

The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting by Philip Hensher

To The Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing World by Simon Garfield

Adventures in Stationery: Stories From Your Pencil Case by James Ward

Notebook by Tom Cox

3.5 out of 5 stars

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

Uisge beatha, or the water of life as whisky is sometimes known, is a glorious drink, though too much of it can have the opposite effect. This drink is intrinsically linked to the peat bogs of Scotland and Ireland and the subtle flavours that it imbues to the raw spirit is intensified with the dual magic of oak and time.

There is a lot of myths behind the symbiose of peat and whisky and in those swirling myths are facts, if you know where to look. Mike Billett is one of those people who know where to look and more importantly what to look for and where to find it. He is ideally qualified too, he is a peatland scientist deeply embedded in the way that the lifecycle of the peat bog.

This book is a mix of travelogue, science, natural history and the history of whisky. Billet is an engaging author whose knowledge of the subject fully understands how this brown fuel makes the drink what it is today. He gives a good insight into the distilling process too, he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the distilleries and their water sources and their maltings. He has a boundless enthusiasm for whisky in all its iterations.

I really liked this book. The mix of genres works well as a cohesive narrative. It is a book to be read with a large dram of your favourite whisky and luxuriate in how a damp brown moss can have so much influence over this spirit.

4 out of 5 stars

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

It felt like her life was unravelling. Coffey had split with her boyfriends, her father had just been diagnosed with cancer and she had decided to quit her job. All this just as the pandemic started. IT was this large amount of free time and the discovery of a translation of the Odyssey by Emily Wilson that opened her eyes to the story and gave her the inkling of an idea.

The urge to travel burned inside her. But this was the time of lockdowns, no international travel and only being allowed out from home to shop and for an hours exercise. It wasn’t going to get to the Mediterranean any time soon…

Later in 202 as the initial wave of infections dropped, the opportunity to travel opened up again. She spoke to her father about her plans and he encouraged her to go. She was finally off to get some sun.

She arrived in Sicily but wasn’t intending to stay there for long. Rather this was to be a six-month journey around the region visiting and staying on the tiny islands that were thought to be the locations mentioned in the Odyssey, the Aeolian Sea, the Adriatic coast and the Balearic islands.

She had managed to secure some freelance work and this as going to give her some security and finance some of the travel costs. It would also give her the means to indulge in the new life she is creating for herself. She swims daily in the cold Mediterranean (it probably isn’t as cold as the North Sea!), enjoying her morning espresso and making the most of her life there.

It gives her time to reflect on what went wrong with her relationship and she speaks regularly to her father as he undergoes treatment. They have always got on well, though it could be strained at times. But the medical care he is getting is not working well and he is not improving. Coffey will have to make a decision on whether she needs to head home to see him and if she will be allowed as international travel is shut down again.

I did like this book a lot, but elements of it made for hard reading. The emotive account of her father’s battle with cancer was particularly tough to read and brought back memories of my experiences. That said the travelogue elements of the book were really good. Coffey has a way of writing that is quite evocative, she captures the moment really well and it made me want to be sitting in the same café enjoying a morning coffee and watching the sea sparkle. The link between the travelling and the Odyssey as she traced the islands was done well too.

So would I recommend this? Yes. It made me want to visit these places and discover them for myself and that I think, is the primary aim of a travel book.