Category: Review (Page 99 of 133)

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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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this stark new world, there has been a catastrophic nuclear war and what is left of America has now become the Republic of Gilead. In this theocratic and totalitarian state, freedoms have been curtailed, the Eyes are everywhere watching every move. In this cruel state, the handmaid Offred barely exists, her freedoms are curtailed, she can shop daily with another handmaid, and everything that she does is monitored. In this society there are almost no children, so the handmaid, a fertile woman placed with one of those societies elite with the intention of providing children to a Commander and his wife. , The act of trying to impregnate her is called the ceremony, and it is carried out once a month at the optimum moment where she is the womb between the husband and the wife.

My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden.

In this mundane life, she remembers the life before women lost almost all their rights, the daughter that was stolen from her, and her husband who was shot trying to save them by getting them over the border. As if this wasn’t traumatic enough, she was sent to the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center where she was taught subservience and indoctrinated by the sadistic aunts who ran the place. In her walks to the shop, she passes the Wall, a place where dissenters and others that state deems to be troublemakers are hung and left for all to see. But not is all it seems in this society, Offred discovers that the elite still hankers after elements of the past world that the state has forbidden and that however much you oppress people there is still a rebel in everyone.
 
I lie in my single bed at night, with my eyes closed, and the name floats there behind my eyes, not quite within reach, shining in the dark.

I haven’t read many books by Margaret Atwood, but the few that I have read have been superb. This tale of a shocking dystopian society has been drawn from the various societies that oppress women in one way another around the world at this very moment, and distilling them into this has made them much more sinister. Her real skill in this is the way these elements are brought together make a frighteningly plausible and very readable story full of razor-sharp perceptions. There are no dramatic twists, just this steady feeling of dread as you read it. Compelling and definitely a modern classic.

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Land of the Dawn-lit Mountains: A Journey across Arunachal Pradesh – India’s Forgotten Frontier by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just on the other side of Bangladesh in the Northeast are a number of states that borders Tibet, Myanmar and Bhutan. Its remoteness means that it has never been on the tourist trail and ongoing posturing from China who dispute the borders in this mountainous region mean that it is not likely to be anytime soon.

One of these states, Arunachal Pradesh, which translates as ‘land of the dawn-lit mountains’ that is probably the remotest of the lot. Travelling on a small motorbike, called Hero, it is this landscape and people that Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent wants to explore and discover about. It is a landscape that has as many surprises as it does legends and the isolation of the state has ensured that the culture there has remained distinctly different to the rest of India. Accompanied by guides and sometimes travelling alone, she finds the people warm and hospitable regardless if they are shamans or monks. She meets those that accompanied the Dali Lama as he passed through the state to safety. The remoteness of the place means that there are very few roads and while the scenery is breathtaking it can be equally dramatic especially when the monsoon hits.

This little piece of India to the East of Bangladesh can rightly claim to be one of the planets least explored regions. Overcoming her anxieties prior to a trip of this magnitude was an achievement in its own right and Bolingbroke-Kent has written a book here that is thrilling and informative in equal measure. It can, I think, be described as a book that epitomises travel writing; someone very much out of their comfort zone, yet who still manages to discover the wonders of this little-known land and write about it with keen and compassionate observation.

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The Orchid Hunter: A young botanist’s search for happiness by Leif Bersweden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whenever orchids are mentioned, most think that they only live in the tropics where their fantastic colours and shapes have dazzled are the ones that have captivated and obsessed people over the ages. This level of obsession has caused grown men to almost lose their minds, squander fortunes and even resort to theft to possess the finest specimens. The United Kingdom has its own collection of orchids that are native to the isles; over fifty of them in fact. Leif Bersweden shares this obsession, having been fascinated with plants from an early age and when an opportunity to take a gap year presents itself, he conceives the idea of travelling around the UK trying to find each and every one of them when they were flowering. Working frantically to save the money for the journey, his parents give their approval for his journey around the UK, his only concern is whether his slight clapped out van is up to making the trip too?

The season for spotting these plants is from May to September and they are spread all around the country. Some of these plants are rare too, with only one or two endangered plants in secret locations. He will walk through bogs, walk through swathes of wildflowers as he sought orchids on chalk downlands, getting slightly lost whilst pushing his way through trees and slide down sand dunes in search of these small but still beautiful plants.

This is a really good combined travelogue and natural history book, with a really nice set of colour photos of all the orchids that he found too, for anybody that wants to discover any of these spectacular plants for themselves. For someone so young, Bersweden has an impressive and clear style already and writes about his passion with infectious enthusiasm. There are brief reflections through his personal life, his anxieties and hopes as he formulates the direction that he wants to take with his life after his orchid challenge. It is too a stark reminder of just how perilous the existence of these plants actually is, half of them are on the UK endangered list and the spectres of climate change and intensive farming are having irreversible effects on the habitat. Definitely one for the plant lovers out there and also one for those who have a wider interest in our native ecology.

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Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark from a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean by Morten A. Strøksnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At the Northwest of Norway far above the North Sea lie the Lofoten islands. The waters here are incredibly deep and lurking at the bottom of them is s relic from the past, the Greenland shark. This is one species of sleeper sharks, and they have been known to live up to 400 years. As they live at depth, their flesh is toxic from the saturation of trimethylamine N-oxide, giving those that eat it a hallucinogenic trance, however, this does not stop the Icelandic people eating it…

There has been a long history of the residents of these islands doing all they can to catch one of these one-tonne creatures. It is a task made much harder because of the depth they swim at, they roll the moment they sense they have been caught and their sandpaper-like skin snaps fishing line so a chain has to be used at the end of the line. But first, you have to find one. Morten Strøksnes and his friend Hugo think that they can catch one too. They have the rods, lines and chain, the innards of a bull that stick to high heaven and an awful lot of optimism, and a very small rubber boat. Should all be fine; shouldn’t it?

This is an account of a mad quest to catch one of the great sharks of the deep ocean, however, this book is more than that. Hunting one of these creatures involves Morten and Hugo sitting in a tiny boat for hours on end, and that gives them time to think, to talk and contemplate the wider questions on life the universe and everything. Hence the book covers an array of fascinating subjects such as mythology and science. As it is an island, the weather changes constantly as the warmth from the from the Gulf Stream meets the cold air from the Arctic and the way that Strøksnes’ prose describes this and the stark beauty of the land and seascapes around the Lofoten islands is quite special.

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RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR by Philip Hoare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

We call it planet Earth, but actually, 70% of the surface is of the planet is watery; hence why some think that it should be called the blue planet. Even as humans beings around 60% of our mass is water, entwining us to our planet. There are stories to be found too; at the point where the sea meets the land is a place that people find comfort, face their inner demons and discover their inner purpose. The sea can be a mirror to our moods too, a millpond ocean will calm, whereas a storm crashing against the shore spikes our adrenaline.

Philip Hoare has an intimate connection to the sea, swimming from a beach near his home almost every day. When he is away from home he makes the most of the opportunities to swim whenever he can. He tells us of the moment of feeling rather than hearing whale song, swimming off the coast of Cape Cod and coming out of the water shivering and blue. Woven into his own experiences of the sea are the stories that he has collected about artists, poets, the famous and the unknown and the strands that link them to the sea. There is a little bit of everything in her from science to history and art, but Hoare does return to those magnificent creatures that are his passion and that he first wrote about in Leviathan, the whales.

Having read Leviathan and The Sea Inside I was really looking forward to this third book of musings on all things oceanic. The mix of subjects and genres with black and white photos make this a striking book. There is a lot to like in here too with some truly dazzling prose, but I thought it didn’t quite have the focus of his other books and felt like it drifted a little too far from the shore. Still worth reading though. 3.5 stars

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All the Devils Are Here by David Seabrook
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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

For the uninitiated, the towns of Margate, Rochester, Chatham, Northfall, Broadstairs and Deal, Seabrook on the north Kent coast seem relatively normal. People go to work, fall in love, fall out, go to the pubs and live life as you’d expect. But underneath this veneer is an unexpected world. It is full of dark secrets, tantalising glimpses of literary and artistic roots, hotbeds of pre-World War 2 fascist supporters and a raft of unsolved murders.

The literary threads that entwine the start of this book are from the authors John Buchan, Robin Maugham, TS Eliot and Dickens, and the fantastical paintings of the artist and murderer Richard Dadd. He contemplates the reasons why these men produced the art that they did as well as speculation over the way that the county wheedled its way into their work. Dickens unfinished book, The Mystery of Edwin Drood was set in a thinly disguised Rochester as Kent and Dickens are inseparable and he inhabits the landscape like a ghost from the past.

Broadstairs had its own secrets to tell though. An impressive house perched on top of the clifftop was once the home of Arthur Tester. The son of a diplomat and a German mother, he became a big supporter of the British Union of Fascists and was a spy and a channel for money coming over from Germany. He slipped away to the continent just before the start of World War II after the authorities were beginning to investigate his activities. The final chapter takes us to Deal; there Seabrook is in the sitting room of Gordon Meadows and is starting to hear the stories of the underground gay scene and the details of a horrific series of murders by someone called Jack the Stripper.

On Margate Sands.
I can connect
Nothing with nothing.
The broken fingernails of dirty hands.
My people humble people who expect
Nothing.

There is very little of the of the suppressed anger and barely hidden rage that permeates the towns of this coastline, towns that have suffered from decades of neglect and no investment, rather this is a trip back into the past of these towns and a re-telling of events that people have tried to forget. The chapter I liked the most was the final one even though it was the most morbid, however, this is possibly one of the strangest books I have read in a while. The bleakness of the subjects along with Seabrook’s writing makes this feel desperate and disturbing, surreal and obsessive; it is strange as it is compelling. It is a book that when you have finished, you’ll set aside and it will make you wonder just what you have read. You will either love it, or hate it. Probably both. But read it anyway.

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