Thanks to Granta for this:
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He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.
The evening after a total eclipse, Laura happens upon a couple in the middle of what seems to be an intimate moment. However, things are not as they seem, as when she sees the terror on the woman’s face and as she realises what she has seen, she makes a hurried call to the police. The man runs off into the crowd and is soon lost to Kit. The police arrive and take over, soon after they apprehend the man. As key witnesses, they attend the trial and in a moment of anger, Laura tells a lie under oath to see him convicted.
The victim of the attack, Beth, started following them and befriended Laura, but there reached a point where her attention was becoming obsessive and after the fire, Kit and Laura live under assumed names. Kit is off to see an eclipse on the Faroe Isles and Laura is going to be at home as she is carrying twins; this is the time that they need to be most vigilant as Beth will try to find them once again. Things are not as they seem though as in the shadow of the eclipse you never see all the detail.
I am not a big reader of thrillers, preferring to find my excitement in real life adventure. However, I thought that this was a good page turner where the twists keep on coming thick and fast in this book right up to the final few pages. In fact, it all seemed disturbing plausible bar one scene. Wasn’t keen on the way it jumped back and forth between the different years but didn’t mind the way the story was told from Kit and Laura’s perspectives. Pretty good thriller overall.
A Mile Down: The True Story of a Disastrous Career at Sea by David Vann
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
David Vann is on holiday in Turkey when he comes across a 90-foot yacht for sale. In an impetuous moment, he decides that this boat will be the one that helps him fulfil his long-held desire to own a boat of his own. He manages to raise $150,000 after begging and borrowing money from family and friends and maxing out his credit cards and sets about repairing and renovating the boat. The only problem is that the guy who runs the boatyard sees him as an easy target and ends up charging him half a million dollars for what is frankly an appalling job. With his out of control debt and the stress of everything, he wonders if he is going to follow the same tragic path as his father
But finally, he has his boat and the beginnings of a business. Sailing with a crew they are hit by a huge storm that destroys their rudder. Helpless and at the mercy of the storm, a ship comes alongside to tow them to safety. Alive but boat less, he manages to forget about anything marine for a while until another opportunity arises and he buys another boat.
There were some parts about this book that I liked and there was a fair amount that grated. You could tell he was going to be ripped off from day one on his renovations on the vessel, and whilst you need to trust those that are doing work for you, he seemed to have an unbelievable level of naivety. What salvages the book though is the description and drama of what are completely terrifying moments of almost-disaster at sea. It is worth reading just for those parts. Overall not bad, but not great.
The Secret Life of Cows by Rosamund Young
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.
Most people probably don’t even consider where the milk comes from when they reach to get it from the fridge for their morning cuppa. When they do venture into the countryside, the may be vaguely aware of these black and white animals in the fields as they flash past in the car. It is only when they have left the climate controlled atmosphere that they realise quite how big they are. Sadly, modern factory farming sees them as machines to either pump milk from or to be dosed full of antibiotics to grow at a rapid rate for slaughter.
At Kite’s Nest Farm, Rosamund Young sees all her animals in a very different way, and her cows hold a special place in her heart. Each cow is named and rather than being forced to stay in a single field, they are allowed to roam freely around the farm so they can find the best grass or shelter as necessary. This freedom, coupled with the fact they there are not treated as commodities, means that their own personalities shine through. Her observations have shown that they are capable of forming life-long friendships, can hold grudges, play games when younger and grieve when another in the herd dies and in their own way can communicate with us mere humans.
In this gently written, quirky and charming little book, Young sets about rewriting everything that you thought that you knew about cattle. In telling the stories of her animals, there are amusing anecdotes, moments of sadness and examples that show just how highly intelligent they can be. They seek out the plants that can help them when they are ill, and many of them know when to approach the family for extra assistance. This a book that is strangely moving and shows what can be gained from treating animals with the respect that they deserve and is a compelling case against the horrors of factory farming. 3.5 Stars
Thank you to Picador, Eland and Elliot and Thompson for these wonderful books
Had been hoping to read quite a lot of books in September, but only managed 17. Quite a lot, but still have somewhat of a backlog! Bar the single book, they were all really good this month. Here they are in all their splendour:
September is the month where the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2017 is announced. I had already read two from the shortlist of six, read one in August and that left three to read. First was Beyond Infinity by Eugenia Cheng an exploration of the mathematics behind the largest numbers that humanity can imagine. For a maths book, it wasn’t bad, but she didn’t have the clarity of someone like Marcus du Sautoy. In Pursuit of Memory by Joseph Jebelli is his personal and professional story about the debilitating disease that is Alzheimer’s. In Other Minds, (thanks to William Collins for helping me out with a copy) Peter Godfrey-Smith looks at the way that our minds have developed when compared to an Octopus and how evolution has solved the same problems in two different ways. I thought that the best of the shortlist was In Pursuit of Memory, but the prize was won by Cordelia Fine and her book, Testosterone Rex and the exploration of gender.
I had quite a UK centric month in September. Mychael Barratt has compiled a book full of facts in London: Maps of Days. Each day of the year has an event or anecdote that has taken place and all are accompanied by his artworks. From Source to Sea by Tom Chesshyre is an account of his walk from the first place that the Thames emerges from the ground to the edge of the estuary where it empties into the North Sea. Surrounding London and other cities is an area of land that has been designated Green Belt. In Outskirts, John Grindrod looks at the way this has been developed from a Victorian idea to a fundamental part of our built environment. Woven in this social history is Grindrod’s own family history and the memories of his childhood growing up on the edge of urban Croydon.
I joined Jonathan Bennett on his surfing journey in Around the Coast in Eighty Waves. I can’t surf but really enjoy reading about the lifestyle and the vibe. That was one of my #WorldfrommyArmchair reads. The other was Travels in a Dervish Cloak about Isambard Wilkinson’s time spent in Pakistan. It is a wonderful set of stories as he tries to find if the original culture is still present after the draping of Islam over the country.
Coronet kindly sent me Megan Hine’s first book, Mind Of A Survivor. She is an outdoor adventurer who has scaled mountains and survived jungles and worked as a consultant on some of Bear Grylls TV series. In this book, he looks at the ways that a learning survival methods at a weekend can be applied to everyday situations in the home and office. Ruth Fitzmaurice has her hands full. Not only does she have five, yes five children, but her husband suffers from Motor Neurone disease and is wheelchair bound and can only communicate with his eyes. I Found My Tribe is a poignant account of her family life and the tribe of women that she swims in Greystones, Co. Wicklow with to maintain some semblance of balance in her life.
Only managed to read two fiction books this month. The first was sent to me inadvertently by Granta (thank you) and was the debut novel by Eli Goldstone, Strange Heart Beating. Seb loses his wife Leda in a freak accident and in the process of grieving realises that he knew less about her than he thought. He travels to Latvia to uncover her past and find the man who sent her the letters that she never opened. Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent is a story about an author who is not the person people think he is. The book starts with a brutal attack, and from this savage event, his own personal life unravels as we discover the history behind his deception.
Managed to read three natural history books. A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Wild Gatherings by Matt Sewell is an art book combined with the collective names we give to all sorts of animals. So if you want to know what a load of crows or sparrows is called, then this is the book for you. Every Little Toller Book that I have read so far has been with it for the time invested and the reprint of Island Years, Island Farm by Frank Fraser Darling is no exception. For each seaon on the equinox or mid summer and winter I have been starting the series of season books published by Elliot and Thompson. They are delightful collections of themed writings of classic and contemporary work edited by Melissa Harrison. On the 21 st September I started Autumn and it met all my expectations again. Buy them if you can.
The Internet Is Not the Answer by Andrew Keen is an an interesting take on the state of the net and some of the subjects reported in the book are quite eye opening, worth reading. My miss of the month was A Mile Down by David Vann, though the description of the two storms he went through read like a thriller, but his naivety was quite shocking.
Solid month of reading there, and October is shaping up to be great too and I am endeavouring to work my way through my massive backlog of review books (and the odd library one).
Travels in a Dervish Cloak by Isambard Wilkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.
When you think of the Asian sub-continent, India is the country that immediately springs to mind. Formed in 1947 after partition from India Pakistan is the poor sibling when it comes to countries to visit. It is a country that Isambard Wilkinson was captivated by. His grandmother had a lot of Anglo-Indian heritage and she was regularly visited by a larger than life friend called Begum, who offered a beguiling glimpse of the country on her visits every year. The desire to visit the country grew in intensity and when the opportunity of being a foreign correspondent there presented itself Wilkinson jumped at the chance. His delicate health was one factor that could hold him back, but he wasn’t going to miss the chance.
Paganism flourished beneath a thin veneer of Islam
Pakistan is a country that is in a certain amount of turmoil. On one hand, you have a people that have a history that goes back hundreds and hundreds of years and even though it has been draped with Islam has still managed to maintain their mystical culture. The modern day country is currently suffering pressures from extremism and religious violence with a never-ending tirade of bombs, coups, assassinations and ethnic violence. It is something that Wilkinson is acutely aware of as he begins his stint as a reporter in the country, but first, he had to go and see Begum.
His route around the country would take him from the Punjab, up into the mountains to the saints and slaves of Sindh and to the very edge of Afghanistan and the infamous Khyber Pass. He meets with feudal overlords and saints, prostitutes and chieftains and petty officials as well as using his knowledge of the country to get to the very heart of the story. His brother joins him on this journey and is spent in an alcoholic blur, dancing or bumping along in the back of a truck. There are moments of relaxation in a hashish haze and some very close misses as the cold fingers of terrorism are never far from the where he stays.
My notes from the festival, made partly illegible by the sweat of the dance, to this day smell of perfumed water and petals
Against all medical advice, Wilkinson followed his heart and made the decision to head to Pakistan a decade ago, and I think he made the right call. A lot of travel writers are there to observe and pass through as a fly on the wall, but he wants to participate, share drinks, mix with people from all levels of society and immerse himself in the country and that is what makes this book quite special. He is not afraid to join in with the celebrations and criticise when appropriate, something that gets him in trouble occasionally. What he finds is quite enlightening too; it is still a young country that is still finding its own voice and identity, whilst being pressurised from outside influences from the Western and Islamic worlds, but there are still those villages that maintain the way of life as they have done for ages. The mono images in the centre of the book fit nicely, as they make you look at the subject matter rather than be dazzled by the colourful people. It is a fitting portrait that gets to the very essence of a complex country.
I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.
Back in 2008, Ruth Fitzmaurice’s husband Simon was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. His career was just starting to lift and they had three small children so Ruth put her writing ambitions on the back burner to care for him and them. Events took a more dramatic turn when he was given four years to live and then they had had twins. Even though Simon can only communicate using his eyes and technology, he still managed to direct My Name is Emily. Ruth regularly heads to a cove in Greystones, Co. Wicklow with two close friends, Michelle and Aifric to swim in the cold seas. She calls this tribe ‘The Tragic Wives’ Swimming Club’; and gives her a necessary respite from her other tribe of children and carers for Simon.
Even in the most tragic of circumstances, she can see hope, even though she has periods of time where she feels raw and vulnerable. Ruth has a roller coaster of emotions living with Simon and his motor neurone disease. It is tough, but not as tough as the moments when she has to answer the children’s questions as what is happening with Dad, especially when she doesn’t have the answers. The sea swimming becomes those moments when she can be herself and relax with her friends. Her beautiful, sparse prose gets to the very essence of what is happening with the various tribes. It is a moving book too, with several poignant moments. She is one tough lady. 3.5 stars
Outskirts: Living Life on the edge of the Green Belt by John Grindrod
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.
Over 1.5 million hectares of green belt land exist in the UK. It was conceived way back in Victorian times as a way of ensuring that the people living in towns still had some contact with the countryside. The Green Belt around London was first proposed in 1935 and by 1947 local authorities were including green belt proposals in their development plans. There are lots of benefits of having these green areas surrounding towns, it prevents towns from merging together, discourages urban sprawl and encourages people to reuse land more efficiently. When I think of the green belt, you have this impression of a wide band of fields and woods surrounding a town or city. However, the reality is much messier than that and it is a resource that is under threat from housing pressures and developers so much so that we have lost over 30,000 hectares since the millennium.
Grindrod grew up in New Addington, at the point where urban Croydon fizzles out and the fields and coppices begin. The youngest of three boys, his parents John and Marj had moved out from a flat in Battersea to this new development in Surrey at the very end of the Sixties. For reasons that become apparent later on, John was a little bit of a loner and suffered from endless teasing; the woodlands opposite his house became a bolthole where he could indulge his imagination when the real world became too much for him. But it became more that, it was a place that came to define him as a person and set the path for his life and career as he became a modern-day Janus man who looked towards the urban and rural landscapes for inspiration.
As well as Grindrod’s insightful personal stories of his own life growing up in 1970’s suburbia and a fitting eulogy to his mother and father, this is a warts and all history of the green belt and its place in the social history of the UK. It bought back my own memories of growing up; we lived in an estate right next to a woodland that was planted by Thomas Waterer and where I spent many happy hours as a child. He champions the good points behind the green belt and the benefits it can provide to society and he hits the nail on the head when it comes to the disjointed housing policy we have had in the UK since the 1980’s. Grindrod is not afraid to challenge the current thinking too arguing that we need a big rethink on national policy with the current housing crisis, especially when you consider the area of land designated green belt (and golf courses are included) in the UK, especially when compared to actual land that is built on. It won’t be an easy debate, but it is one we need to have. Really enjoyable book, and as I haven’t read Concretopia yet, but it is being moved up the list.
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