Category: Review (Page 97 of 132)

Woods: A Celebration by Robert Penn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When you think of the National Trust what comes to mind is the fine mansions houses and grand estates or the swathes of coastline that they are now custodians for. Under their protection is a wide variety of landscapes, from moor to heathland, farmland to mountains, ancient sites and what is the focus of this book, woodlands. In fact 60,000 acres in total on the land that they are responsible for, from ancient woodlands that contain some of the oldest living things in our country to forests that were the playgrounds of royalty.

Sadly woodland cover at just over 12% in the UK is the lowest it has ever been and we have one of the lowest in Europe too with both France and Germany being around 30%, but most are trailing in the wake of Finland as that has over 70% cover. That said, we have some of the oldest lived trees in Europe and the National Trust among others is custodian to some of our finest woodlands.

In this sumptuous coffee table book, Robert Penn tells the history of the woods and forests that the National Trust cares for. The book follows season by season showing the transformation from the skeletal outlines of the trees in winter to the rich colours of autumn. Penn’s prose is short and to the point, as he weaves history, folklore, natural history and the future of our woodlands as well as talking about some of our most famous forests in the country as well as the lesser-known ones. into very readable prose. What makes this book though is that it is full of the stunning photographs of woodlands and trees and the other creatures that inhabit some of our most treasured of places.

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Owl Sense by Miriam Darlington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Owls have fascinated and terrified people for thousands of years. These raptors, most of whom hunt at night or at the witching hour of dusk have been seen as the harbingers of doom or symbols of wisdom. Nowadays science has explained just how specialised these beautiful birds are. They use their wise looking faces to focus the minutest sound into their binaural hearing, how their feathers have evolved to ensure that they are utterly silent when flying.

She could hear owls calling from her bedroom window and wanted to see if she could spot them as they went looking for food each night, and discovering her local owls sparked something inside her. Initially, Darlington was intending to head out onto the moors and woods to find the five species of owl in Britain, which are the Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Little Owl and the Short and Long-Eared Owls, but like with the otters in her previous book these elusive birds became an obsession too.

This fascination with the owls of the UK takes a step up when she finds herself booking a flight to Kikinda in Serbia to see the thousands of Long-Eared Owls that visit the town. Now Darlington is completely hooked and trips to southern Spain, France and Finland are arranged to see the Pygmy Owls and Snowy Owls.

Like a lot of natural history books at the moment, there is a personal element too, and this is no different as she tries to balance work and family life and they find out that her son Benji has a condition that affects the decisions that he can make with his life. It is full of fascinating details and facts and is a touching book about those most elusive and silent of raptors and the way that Darlington becomes besotted by them; if you liked Otter Country then this should be on your reading list.

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Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight by Joe Pappalardo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Space travel was one once the sole domain of governments; they were the only ones who could afford the multi-million pond budgets and the long timescales for design, development and testing, as well as the risks associated with launching expensive rockets full of very explosive fuel. The once great NASA now has to buy space and payloads on rockets from ESA and the Russians

Whilst it is no longer a race amongst countries for space, we now have a plethora of companies vying for government and private companies money as well as those trying to start the space tourism industry. There are some big players getting involved, Bezos with his Blue Origin company, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic. They have all been pouring vast sums into this industry as the sky is the limit for potential growth and profits.

Joe Pappalardo has had a fascination with space flight for a long time and has been fortunate (or lucky) enough to see many launches not only in America but at various sites around the world. As well as the main contenders who are developing their own rockets there are a large number of other companies that want to hitch a ride before the rocket goes, and it is these people that Pappalardo travels to see and talk too. He talks to those with the money, the rocket scientists making them work, the states that are investing in the infrastructure for their own spaceports. Even though technology is improving, it is still a dangerous game, there are stories of failed projects, huge explosions as rockets fail even before launch and sadly those that have had their lives extinguished pushing to the future.

I finished this on the day that Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy Lifter blasted off from Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral and put a car into space. I loved the Don’t Panic message on the screen on the dashboard, but most impressive was the return of the boosters bask to Earth, landing in perfect synchronicity. This is a really good introduction to the current state of space technology and those seeing it as just another investment opportunity. There are going to be few winners and lots of losers in this very expensive game. One day this will all be history; but at this very moment, it is the future.

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Hadrian’s Wall by Adrian Goldsworthy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Hadrian’s Wall and the associated forts are the largest Roman ruins visible in the world. It is 80 miles long and reaches from the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea across hills and dales to the banks of the Tyne on the North Sea and marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. It wasn’t the only wall built to be the northernmost frontier, that honour goes to the Antonine Wall. This was started in 142AD and abandoned around 20 years later when legions were moved back to the more substantial Hadrian’s Wall. Long thought to be a barrier keeping out the Picts and Ancient Britons that lived north of this wall, it turns out to have a much deeper and complicated history.

Adrian Goldsworthy brings us up right up to on the latest hypothesis’ and theories of Hadrian’s Wall, considering how it functioned, how it was built and whether it served a military function or it was just a demonstration of power to the marauding tribes. By drawing on the recent archaeological discoveries, in particular, the details gleaned from the tablets discovered at Vindolanda, he pieces together a vivid picture of how life would be there for a soldier on the furthest outpost from Rome. It is a beautifully produced book, full of maps, photos and images of what we know of life in the UK 2000 years ago; definitely a book for any lover of Roman history.

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The Last Wilderness, A Journey into Silence by Neil Ansell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Neil Ansell like being alone left to his thoughts and musings and preferably in a place where he can absorb the tranquillity whilst being outdoors. It hasn’t happened as much as it used to as he now has two daughters and the responsibilities that come with being a parent.

His chosen wilderness is the West Coast of Scotland. This landscape offers the heady mix of islands, white beaches and blue seas, temperate rainforests (yes really), undisturbed lochs and majestic mountains. He has chosen this part of the UK to take long walks across the terrain in each of the seasons, aiming to immerse himself in nature and become part of it rather than just an observer. The interplay of light across the rolling hills as the weather changes almost minute by minute. Being so remote, the chances of coming across other people is unlikely and as he treads softly across the landscape and his solitary presence means that he gets to see far more of the animals that inhabit here. The joy of watching otters slipping into the sea lochs, seeing stags silhouetted on the skyline and seeing golden and sea eagles soaring above is tempered by a profound change in the way that he senses the world around. Almost deaf in one ear, he had relied for years on his other, but now that is fading from the highest frequencies down and the bird songs that once delighted him now inhabits his memories only.

Ansell is widely travelled; five continents and over fifty countries is quite a record. He has lived in a forest in Scandinavia, hitchhiked across countries, seen the wild animals of the Amazon, lived in squats in London and spent five years in a cottage in Wales with no running water or electricity. By returning to the same part of Scotland, it feels like a spiritual journey and he connects deeply to the landscape each time he visits, but it is tinged with the remorse that he has of no longer being able to hear the birdsong. It is a beautiful book to read, he has a knack of teasing out all that he sees around him into the most exquisite prose. I think that the writing is as good as Deep Country, which if you haven’t read then you should. Another excellent book from Ansell.

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Dark State by Charles Stross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review


Picking right up where Empire Games left off, Rita the world-walker is back in her home America. Her handlers are slightly disturbed that she was picked up so quickly and the message that she has returned with has allsorts of ominous overtones. The politics of that country are beginning to crack as the health of the leader reaches a certain point, and Miriam Burgeson sees that there might be an opportunity to get a high-profile defector on her side and diffuse the situation.

After an intense debriefing and an all to short reunion with her lover, Rita is sent back into the other America to begin negotiations with Miriam; to be wrong-footed totally as she reveals that she is Rita’s mother. Another group from Rita’s world have discovered another timeline with what looks to be the remains of another civilisation. Quite an advanced civilisation too, but their presence there has been noticed by the very thing that destroyed who was there before.

To say this is fast-paced would be an understatement, I crashed through this in very little time at all, so much so that I almost went flying past the cliffhanger(s) at the end of the book. He neatly tied up some of the threads up from Empire Games but has blown the whole lot open now for the third book. The multiple plots duck and dive and intertwine making this sharp and spikey mash-up of a sci-fi and espionage thriller a great read. Stross has added a political dimension to it too with the interplay between the states in Miriam’s world, and the manoeuvring that is taking place in Rita’s world. The third is looking like it is going to be great.

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Deer Island by Neil Ansell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At the beginning of the 1980’s society was declared to be non-existent, the rights of the individual were set to dominate. As political change flowed across our country the community spirit that had been there was steadily eroded. The effects of these changes were most profoundly felt at the bottom of society as the number of homeless increased steadily. Neil Ansell felt moved to work for the Simon Community as a volunteer helping those sleeping rough and living in squats. Living with almost nothing, avoiding bailiffs and living from day to day was pretty tough. Harder still was seeing those that he came to know and some who became friends either vanish never to be seen again or pass away with health and drug issues.

To escape from the intensity of living in London he would head to the beautiful Isle of Jura to reset his mind and soul. Whilst there he would revel in the remoteness and solitude and reconnect with the natural world.

Memories are the only things we truly own, and even they slip from our grasp if we don’t handle them with care

Deer Island is not a quite a memoir, more a brief and intense recollection of life in squats and sleeping rough around London and two brief interludes in Jura. Ansell has quite a beautiful way of writing, and like Deep Country, this is a delight to read. It is a fitting eulogy to those that he knew briefly and an acknowledgement of the landscapes of the West Coast that help ground him again.

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Into the Mountain: A Life of Nan Shepherd by Charlotte Peacock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Born in 1893 in Peterculter just outside Aberdeen to John and Jane Shepherd she moved when she was tiny to a home in Cults where she had a happy upbringing and was to remain almost all her life. She was educated at Aberdeen High school and went to Aberdeen University where she graduated in 1915. A job teaching English at Aberdeen College of Education followed and she was there until retiring in 1956.

She had begun writing poems whilst at university and this love of language was complemented by her love for of landscape and mountains of the Cairngorms in particular. By the 1930’s Nan Shepherd had written three novels, The Quarry Wood, The Weatherhouse and A Pass in the Grampians and a small volume of poetry called In the Cairngorms; these had modest literary success as well as critical acclaim and was she considered to be one of Scotland’s literati. Politically savvy too, Shepard was heavily involved in the Scottish modernist movement.

The book that was to be acknowledged her masterpiece though almost never happened. The passion and love of the mountains that she had, became the manuscript of The Living Mountain. It was first written in the 1940’s and sent to various publishers, all of whom declined it. Not totally sure what to do with it, she placed it in a drawer in a unit in her hall. It was to remain there for over 30 years. Then in 1977, she fished it out of the drawer after someone expressed an interest in it. The first print run was only 300 copies, but interest grew in the book and in time it was recognised as a classic piece of landscape writing.

Nan Shepherd was a very private lady, and I think Peacock has done a reasonable job here of teasing out the stories of this reticent and stoic individual. She had access to the archives of Shepherd and spent time talking to the few friends that are left.
It was interesting finding out about an author who has made such an impact with a slender book that almost nearly wasn’t. Not too bad overall and if you have a fascination with what made Shepherd who she was then I would recommend it, but it did read a little like an academic paper at times.

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Eastern Horizons: Hitchhiking the Silk Road by Levison Wood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Sometimes it is the little things in life that make the biggest differences. Having snuck into Alton Towers to save some cash, Levison Wood then lost his wallet with all his money in… Dismayed and penniless, he was shocked, to say the least when it dropped on his doormat with a note from the army officer who had found it. Wood wrote back to say thank you and to ask about a career in the services; a reply was swiftly forthcoming with six pages of notes that detailed recommendations and suggestions to optimise his chances of getting in and the final sentence was the recommendation; above all, travel…

Which is why he found himself at the age of 22 setting off a journey to hitch-hike from Nottingham across Russia with a friend, before heading south alone to follow the route taken by people for millennia, the Silk Road. He was inspired to follow this route after finding a book called the Great Game in the library whilst he should have been researching something else. This book told the tale of Arthur Conolly who in 1839 tried to see if it was still possible to travel along this legendary road.
His budget of £750 was stretching the definition of shoestring fairly thin, especially as he was hoping to fly home rather than hitchhike back again. His companion in Russia was Jon Winfield, a friend who shared a love of the open road too. Wood’s Russian leg would take him from Calais to Stavropol via St Petersburg and he would drink more vodka than was definitely healthy for him, but as they approached Georgia, the first of the Caucasus countries Jon decided to head home., with the ominous message that he didn’t want to hear about Levison on Al Jazeera.

Having heard all the horror stories from the Russians about the Georgians, he finds them warm and welcoming and find that the loathing that they have for each other is mutual. Leaving the country to pick up the Silk Road from Turkey and would head into Iran. It is a country of contrasts, with the theocratic mullahs having the most influence and the population committing their own individual acts of defiance. Next was the most dangerous part of his journey, into Afghanistan; this was in 2004, and the country was still under American occupation with battles still happening between the mujahideen, the Americans and the Taliban. The people were resigned at the time to another war taking place in their country but still were as hospitable as they could be given the circumstances. Surviving Afghanistan, Woods crosses the Khyber Pass and into Pakistan the penultimate country on his trip, before reaching the beaches of Goa at journeys end.

It was a journey that had a significant impact on his life. He did join the army as an officer in the parachute regiment and served in various theatres before leaving and becoming a journalist and photographer, but adventure travel is what he has become best known for. This latest book, about his experiences hitchhiking across Russia and the middle east, is I think his best yet. It may not have the freshness of his walks across Africa, Central America and the Himalayas, as it was written from the notes and journals that he kept, but he has matured as a writer and it shows in this book. 4.5 stars

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The Secret Life of Animals: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discovering a Hidden World by Peter Wohlleben
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Animals of all kinds have played a part in the human story from way back; they have been companions, used for work, providing and actually being the food in a lot of cases too. Whilst some have been cherished, lots have been treated as pure commodities and we have often been quite cruel usually because people thought that they were not capable of communicating or had emotions.

The latest scientific research and observations though is uncovering a very different story. Lots are known about dolphins and whales though we and not very far down the road of understanding what is being said, and it turns out there are a lot of other animals that communicate in one way or another but there is another world that is slowly being revealed. They have discovered instances of animals feeling shame, sadness, regret and as well as the way they can consciously select partners.

I really enjoyed Peter Wohlleben’s first book, The Hidden Life Of Trees, a subject he knows a lot about having been a forester for around three decades, and the intimacy of his knowledge there shines like a blade of sunlight through the glade. With this, he is out of his comfort zone somewhat and even though he is drawing on personal experience and scientific research to highlight just how animals behave. Whilst it may have a grounding in science, this is primarily anecdotal evidence and also shows how we as humans project our not fully understood emotions and habits onto all sorts of different species. Still worth reading as some of the stories in here are quite entertaining.

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