Received these from a fellow book blogger yesterday. Thanks, Jules!
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Wild Kingdom: Bringing Back Britain’s Wildlife by Stephen Moss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ever since William Blake wrote the words ‘Englands green & pleasant Land’ in 1804 it has always been considered one of the best descriptions of the British countryside. For millennia humans have been changing the landscape in this country and the wildlife co-existed with us and the habitats that were formed. Now days only green could be considered correct; decades of industrial farming has wreaked untold devastation amongst the wild creatures and flowers that had once made our countryside so pleasant. Headlines scream at us from the papers about how our native wildlife is in trouble and the facts about what has been happening are frankly terrifying.
In amongst the grim news, there have been some success stories, species have been dragged back from the very brink of extinction or have been part of successful introduction programmes; these should be celebrated for good reason. But while we have been concentrating on the rare and the spectacular, our once common animals, house sparrows and the hedgehog and others have suffered catastrophic falls in numbers. Moss decides to find out for himself just what the state of our nation’s wildlife is. Starting with what is the largest land area in our country, farmlands, we go on a whistle-stop tour through our woods, seashores, and mountains. As wildlife is as much a part of the urban jungle nowadays, especially with the fox living off the waste that humans leave behind and peregrines hurling themselves from skyscrapers in the very centre of our capital.
The countryside is being exploited by self-appointed, minority-interest pressure groups whose claims to be the guardians of the countryside would be amusing, were the consequences not so serious.
This is another superb book from Moss, but more importantly is it timely too. The state of the wildlife in the country is at a tipping point after decades of pummelling from chemicals and dramatic loss of habitat. There have been some reintroductions of natives like beavers and the cleaning up of the rivers has seen the spectacular return of the otter that can be claimed as successes and there have been places where farmers and landowners have taken it upon themselves to re-wild the land which have proved successful. The points that he is fairly forcefully making are being echoed elsewhere too, most recently in Bee Quest by Dave Goulson and The Running Hare by John Lewis-Stempel, guys with their pulse of the countryside. This is a book to read if you care about the very future of our countryside and more importantly this should be a book that all politicians should be made to read.
From the fabulous Faber
The Swordfish and the Star: Life on Cornwall’s Most Treacherous Stretch of Coast by Gavin Knight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cornwall is one a popular holiday destination for those wishing to stay in the UK. The coves and beaches are beautiful, the land and seascapes are breath-taking and being in the far west of the country, can claim to have some of the best sunsets going and is full of cosy cottages and quaint fishing villages. Where the land ends the Atlantic Ocean starts, bringing in the warmth of the Gulf Stream, it makes Cornwall’s quite balmy at times. It can though be at the receiving end of the might that all the ocean can throw at it, as winter storms sweep in pummelling the coast and cliffs.
There is still a fiercely independent local population who are doing their absolute best to ensure that they can still live in their county even though it has one of the highest second home ownership levels in the country, forcing house prices through the roof. Knight introduces us to the rich and varied characters that populate this place. We hear about the fisherman who battle against the seas month in month out, frequently putting their lives at risk to earn an income. They don’t always return. Those that do then have to battle the bureaucratic tangle that is the fisheries quotas and the families that dominate the markets. They guys who do this tough high-risk job day in and day out fight their own battles with drink and drugs as a coping mechanism. Artists have always been drawn to Cornwall s elemental coast, the quality of the light and the isolation that gave them the tools to focus on their work. Thankfully with broadband now there is a growing community of digital animators keeping the traditions alive.
Knight has written an honest and frank book peering behind the pasty’s and cream teas and surfboards to get under the skin of the county. It is one of the UK’s deprived areas, that most of the time couldn’t give a monkies about the rest of the UK, let alone Europe. He is not afraid to mix with the inhabitants chasing the snippets heard in the Swordfish and the Star pubs until he has a coherent story to tell us. Some of these stories of the rough justice and dangerous moments will scare you and captivate you.
The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times by Xan Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.
It is five years since the Great War finished and the country is still shattered. Casualties from the war abound, and some of who have suffered the most are sheltering in Epping Forest. Lucy Marsh and her brother Tom have been orphaned and live with their grandparents in a struggling pub in the grimy streets of north London. As money is tight, they have been despatched to Grantwood House, home of Lord Hertford where men from the war are convalescing. But there are four of these ‘funny men’ who have suffered horrific injuries have called themselves after characters from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, Toto and the Lion. Each week Lucy and Winifred climb into an old army lorry to go and see these men, to offer them comfort and companionship.
Circumstances mean that those visits stop and Lucy and the others end up spending lots more time on the estate and come into increased contact with the repulsive Rupert, son of Lord Hertford. He has drawn in a large number of oddballs and outcasts and proceeds to ply them with increasing amounts of cocaine, the drug of the future supposedly… But that future might already be starting to unravel for Lucy.
I loved the title of the book, which was the thing that drew me to it originally. Drawing on the deepest elements of folklore and the forest, Brooks has written a book cannot be called comforting at all. The writing is not fast paced and it borders on the surreal at times, full of subtle euphemisms as the dark plot is revealed little by little. However, it is compelling. If it has one flaw, it took a while to get going as Brooks has lots of characters to place in the story, but once I was there I read this in just a couple of days. A great debut novel and one that rewards you for sticking with it.
Empire Games by Charles Stross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Seventeen years ago the Monarch of the New British Empire was overthrown. Since then power has steadily transferred to the North American Commonwealth. They are on course to defeat the French and return democracy once again. However, the commissioner of the shadowy Ministry of Intertemporal Research and Intelligence tasked with monitoring the movement of people through the paratime links between the parallel worlds has been warning that the Americans are coming. No one believed Miriam Burgeson but as the leader’s health fails, the first American drones appear in the skies.
In another timeline and a different America, Rita has been identified as world-walker, an individual who can switch between the parallel worlds with ease. She is a feisty individual, not completely sure why a shadowy agency wants her but presented with precisely no choice in the matter. First, she must be trained, undergo surgery and be indoctrinated, but the time is cut shorter as the pressure grows on the US to find out what is happening in the world alongside theirs. The perils of first contact between the worlds is heightened as they both have nuclear capability and no one knows if this battle will go white hot once again.
This is a fast-paced mash-up of the spy and military genres set in a near future sci-fi world; or should that be worlds. There is plenty of drama in the plot, with the odd twist that enhances the storyline no end. Like all good sci-fi books, it manages to mess with your head whilst sounding eminently plausible, the various societies that Stross has created do take a while to get your head around too. It leaves many questions unanswered making the ending a little bit scrappy, but as it is the beginning of a series, I don’t mind that so much. Very much looking forward to the next one.
Love,Madness,Fishing by Dexter Petley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Dexter Petley was born on the borders of Kent and Sussex in the mid 1950’s. It was a tough upbringing in post-World War 2 Britain; people in the Weald scratched out a living picking hops and mending and making do. Failing the Eleven Plus meant that he didn’t go to grammar school but ended up at the local secondary modern school where they taught some of the children how to run a smallholding. Partly to escape from real life, Petley taught himself to fish and began a lifelong affair with the riverbank and countryside. He ended up making his own rods, floats and weights as there was not the cash to buy them new or second-hand.
This is an authentic, enchanting, but unsentimental memoir of growing up in Kent in the late sixties and early seventies. If you are looking for a memoir on fishing there is not so much in here; it is more an undercurrent to the whole book and something that he returns to again and again. It is full of colourful characters that add much to the narrative who Petley came across as he was growing up and learning the ropes of life. It is also a snapshot of a rural life as it underwent significant social changes as Britain moved from the Sixties to the Seventies. Occasionally dark and often gritty, this memoir is tempered by the crisp, fine writing.
A Sky Full of Birds by Matt Merritt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Birds are one of the wild animals that we can see every day without even putting any effort in to look. Some are so ubiquitous, like the pigeon that we barely notice them. Others, like the robin, have a special place in our hearts, which is why it was voted our nation’s favourite bird. You will often hear the song of a blackbird, see starlings and sparrows charging about everywhere and if you are lucky, glimpse a kestrel as you race past on the motorway. However, if you are to pause a little longer, and look at little harder you might just see birds that you never thought you’d come across.
Merritt is advocating taking those few extra moments to really look at what is happening. Small birds flying around a larger one are probably mobbing a buzzard if there are agitated pigeons in a city the look for a streak of a Peregrine. A bird on a pyracantha when you’re putting your shopping in the back of the car could be a waxwing and not just a blackbird. But if you really want to see the magnificent murmurations of starlings, huge flocks of wading birds or hear the din from a rookery or the sweet note of a nightingale then this book would be a good place to start.
Merritt will captivate you with his infectious enthusiasm for our feathered friends. He has used his craft as a poet to make this a fluently written book. It is full of details and keen observations of his subject, but then you’d expect that as he is well qualified to write this too as he is editor of Bird Watching Magazine. Definitely, a book worth reading and will hopefully give people some pointers on where to look for these natural miracles.
I follow a bookshop on Twitter called The Big Green Bookshop who are in Wood Green in London. A couple of weeks ago Simon tweeted that he was seriously skint and needed to sell a whole pile of books to pay the bills that week. His post went viral and his online orders jumped from 1 or two a day to around 100! This is also the same guy who after a spat between Piers Morgan and JK Rowling decided to tweet all of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to him. 800 tweets later Morgan blocked him…
Today he had a page about him and the bookshop in the Times. He is a great guy, I’m sure he find a book to sell you 🙂
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