Beyond the Fell Wall by Richard Skelton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The musician, Richard Skelton has lived high in the hills of Cumbria for a number of years. A lot of his time is spent composing music, but when he isn’t, he heads out on foot to explore the fields, walk the footpaths and immerse himself in the landscape of the high fell. From those explorations comes this book. It takes in the vastness of geological time, the detail he studies the living plants that a wall gives life to, the apparitions of the past glimpsed in the present and the reassurance that a dry stone wall brings as an edge to a wilder place..

The wall sings, not just the songs of the living, but the unheard melodies of the dead

Skelton is deeply connected with the land around him, and this is what makes this quite a special book. He draws on poetry, prose and quotes to paint a vivid picture of the place that he loves. He is not afraid to use the space of the page to create artwork from words using the names of fields or the delights that you can find in the language of the land. This is the first of his that I have read, though I have a copy of Landings by him after being recommended it by another reader, which is going to be bumped up the to read list.

Enter into the landscape. Repeatedly. And in so doing it enters into you

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Land Rover: The Story of the Car that Conquered the World by Ben Fogle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Production started in 1948 and ran for 67 years; over 2 million were produced and around three-quarters of those are still going. They are not particularly quick, have the aerodynamics of a garden shed, frequently leak, you cannot always hear the radio or the passengers and if you can fit in one, you will probably be quite uncomfortable. It makes you wonder who would buy a Land Rover, but this is a vehicle that people love with a passion. No make that an obsession.

Fogle is a fan too, having owned several, but he wants to see what others find so appealing about this eccentric British truck. His journey will take him across Britain, meeting with those who own one, two or in some cases many Land Rovers. He cruises the streets of Belfast in the armoured Defenders, talk with those who have crossed continents in them, partake in a coffee served by a barista from the back of a conversion. He takes his own Series 1 onto the beach where Wills sketched the initial design out in the sand and drives an eye-wateringly expensive Kahn around Islay. There is even a trip to see the one that has become a piece of art.

I have always loved Land Rovers, in fact, it was the first thing that I ever drove. The passion that people have for these agricultural vehicles is quite something, in some cases, it has become a generational thing with grandfathers, fathers and daughters all owning one. Prose can occasional be a bit laboured, but there is enough in here for someone with a general interest, but if you are looking for more detail on the vast history, or know these cars inside out then this may not be the books for you. 2.5 stars.

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An Astronomer’s Tale: A Bricklayer’s Guide to the Galaxy by Gary Fildes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gary Fildes was one of the many who struggled to get a job in the Eighties in Sunderland. Married young, he ended up with four children and no real prospects and after a few dead-end jobs, he ended up learning a trade in the building industry. But he had a secret, from an early age he had borrowed his brother’s telescope and discovered this wonder of the night sky. After talking about it to one group of lads and getting a pummelling, decided it wasn’t cool, and kept it this passion hidden from most of his friends and colleagues. After he lost his father, and middle age was approaching faster than he would have liked, he realised that there was no point keeping his hobby a secret anymore.

The stars have captivated mankind for as long as they have been looking up. Civilisations have sought meaning from the stars as well as using them to predict (fairly unsuccessfully) the future. Nowadays most of us cannot see the delights of the Milky Way as it is lost in the light pollution. However, grabbing a pair of binoculars and taking a little time to head away from the town light and you will be rewarded with all the delights of the night sky. Since that moment, Fildes has gone on to found the Kielder Observatory and is the lead astronomer there. This stunning building is located in the Keilder forest which is one of the top sites for dark skies and there you can find some of the best views of the universe from the UK. Astronomy is one of those sciences that literary anyone can participate in. Amateurs have found as many exciting new phenomena as the professionals and the people that run the observatory are looking to inspire the next generation of stargazers.

This part memoir also has a useful star guide. It is a good introduction for those wanting to find out more about the sky at night, Not bad, for a former brickie.

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Summer: An Anthology for the Changing Seasons by Melissa Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My memories of summer are of long hot days spent on the beach with frequent dips into the sparkling sea to cool off, lying reading on the grass warmed by the sun and swatting wasps away from picnics. This is the UK though, and sometimes it rains… Summer is the time of intensity, the acid green freshness of spring fades as the long warm days bring the flowers and insects out in the race to reproduce. As the season pivots on the solstice, the days begin to shorten even though the sun is still building in intensity for some of the hottest days in the year.

Harrison has once again brought together a varied collection of essays, poetry and articles about summer. She has drawn from a number of classic texts of literature like Cider with Rosie and The Natural History of Selbourne by Gilbert White and Hardy that manage to evoke a summer of a past age. On top of these classic authors there are a number of essays from well-known writers such as Paul Evans and Mark Cocker, but where Harrison excels is finding exciting new writers, like Jo Cartmell and Emma Oldham, who are adding greatly to the breadth of nature writing that we now have in this country. As with all Elliot and Thompson books, the cover is stunning and it has delightful little sketches scattered throughout the book. Essential reading for any nature lover and a book to be dipped into each time summer rolls around again.

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The Peregrine by J.A. Baker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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

Peregrines are one of the most impressive apex predators in this country, but it is one that we almost lost because of pesticides and persecution. They are bold, confident birds, fearing nothing else and can also claim to be the world’s fastest animal as they have been recorded at speeds in excess of 200mph in their stoop to kill their prey. Two things saved them, the banning of pesticides and they moved from the rural to the urban environment, skyscrapers replacing the cliff top eyries.

Half a century ago, J.A. Baker first published this book on these magnificent birds. The book is written as a diary, with him following on foot and bicycle a tiercel and a falcon pair over the winter over the fields and fens of Essex, he would note on his OS maps when he saw them, the prey that they had caught, and general notes on the weather and sky. What started as a fascination with all of the raptors in the region, rapidly became a passion before becoming a complete obsession. He learnt the peregrines habits, sought out their roosts and before long his knowledge of them grew to become an innate ability to know where and when they would appear.

This is the second time I have read The Peregrine, the first time was back in 2011. Since then I have managed to work my way through an awful lot of natural history books by a lot of authors, a lot of which have been good, all the authors have been passionate about their chosen subject, but none have had that obsession that Baker has. What also strikes me about this book though, is just how sharp it still is, Baker writes with brevity, precision and a style that is quite unique and uncompromising. It pulls no punches either, this in not a sanitised volume on the grace and power of the raptor, you will hear a lot about the remains of their meals is all the gory detail. What you do get though is an observer who completely understands his subject describing that moment when they stop soaring about the fens and start the hunt to the sheer adrenaline of the stoop. It is a snapshot of the time when the peregrine was on the edge of the abyss, somewhat abated now, but not completely safe. If you have not read this before then this 50th-anniversary edition with the thoughts of two other great writers, Mark Cocker and Robert Macfarlane included, is a great place to start.

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To be a machine by Mark O’Connell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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

Nowadays technology is pervasive; you are rarely more than a few feet away from a smartphone or some sort of internet-enabled device. But there are some people out there who want to take it further, much, much further. Not only do they want to embrace technology, but quite a few of them want to actually inhale it; to change their bodies, improve their minds, maybe even become immortal. These people are looking beyond humanity; these people want to be transhuman.

O’Connell poses the question; what is next for humanity? To answer this question will take him all around the world to meet the weird, the wonderful and the slightly disturbed people who are trying to answer it. He visits the DARPA Robotics Challenge to meet engineers who are building the next generation of robots that are capable of learning and have awareness of their surroundings, a frightening thought when you consider the implications. He visits a cryogenics company who will remove and store your head with the promise that it will be available should the technology reach the point where it can resuscitate you, something that no one can predict if this will ever happen at this current moment. Teenagers seem perfectly happy to be constantly holding a phone, but there are those that want the technology to be always available and who are hacking their own bodies to install home-made electronics within themselves. Some are seeking immortality and are looking for ways to postpone death indefinitely and there are those that see that immortality should be capturing the mind and uploading it as you would do with photos.

These concepts that O’Connell explores on his journey through transhumanism are starting to move from the pages of science fiction into the mainstream. We already have athletes that compete in the Paralympics that are capable of equalling regular competitors and as our trust grows in technology we are looking at ways of enhancing our humanity. We, as a species, have many limitations, but the one we do not lack is imagination. Turning those ideas that the people in this book have into practical solutions is another level up on where we are at the moment, but humanity is nothing but ingenious. As an electronics and mechanical engineer this book both fascinates and terrifies me at the same time (am I the only one who had the name Skynet pass through my mind). There is the potential of the enhancements that can change people’s lives for the good, but there are lots of very real problems that need to be addressed. No one can categorically say if these things will work, or if they will benefit us, or what the implications are of submitting our lives to the responsibility of robots helpers will be. An interesting book that hopefully will provoke further discussion as we embrace technology and it envelops us. 3.5 Stars.

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