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The Humans by Matt Haig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Andrew Martin is not the man he used to be. To be honest, he isn’t the human he used to be either. The original Andrew Martin was a maths genius, and he had just solved the Riemann hypothesis on prime numbers, but he wasn’t a particularly nice man either, as the alien who is impersonating him is rapidly finding out. He has been sent to destroy all evidence that this hypothesis has been solved, and he will do anything to ensure that anyone else who has spoken to Martin about the solution, is not in a position to do anything about it either.
The thing is, his so called low key operation gets off to the worst possible start. On top of that he isn’t quite sure just what to make of the human race, just what drives these humans, and maybe, just maybe start to fall in love with the lady who is now his wife. Now he has a choice that he doesn’t really want to make; complete his mission; or become human.
It is has some parallels with stories like A Man Called Ove, the kind that gives some people a warm fuzzy glow, and Haig has got this nailed. But for me it wasn’t hugely amusing, though it did make me smile in some parts. The best part for me was the list of advice to us to make your life much better at the very back of the book. Overall, 2.5 stars. Not bad and I will probably read the others that I have on my shelves at home.
Hell of a Journey: On Foot Through the Scottish Highlands in Winter by Mike Cawthorne
My rating: 0 of 5 stars
As challenges go this was pretty extreme. Across the Scottish Highlands. On Foot. In Winter. And bagging the 135 peaks over 1000 metres.
The guy is insane.
Strangley enough, no one had attempted this before; but this is what Mike Cawthorne decided to do. So he started preparations for the mammoth trek across the last of the United Kingdom’s wildernesses. Not only did he have to get fit, but he left caches of food at set points across the route that would enable him to keep moving. He handed in his notice at his job and made his way to the very north of Scotland. His route would take him from the bleak Sutherland Bay, through the Eastern Cairngorms, past Loch Lomond, and onwards to Glencoe. It is one of our most spectacular landscapes, but with that beauty comes genune danger. These places in the winter can be as cold as the Arctic, and suffer days of relentless winds; little did Cawthorne know just what weather he would encounter on his epic walk.
He is a lyrical writer, managing to keep our attention as he battles through all that the Scottish winter could through at him. But mountains are in his blood, and as foolhardy as a journey of this magnitude is, for him it is a calculated risk, with a strong sense of his exact limits. Even though there was no point where I wished I was alongside him in some of the conditions he encountered, his evocative writing means that you feel the wind, taste the rain, shiver in the cold and absorb the view in the sharp sparkling sun as he did. But it is a call to arms too, as the places he crossed are under threat from greedy land owners expecting this wild and untamed land to pay its way. What we have the opportunity to see now may one day soon be gone. It is a well written book on out most spectacular mountains.
He is still insane though…
The new issue of newbooks magazine is out , and I have two articles in it. It is well worth reading for those of you who haven’t come across it before.
Have had a bookish afternoon meeting James Lockhart and Robert Penn at the Dorchester Literary Festival and now hearing Dan Richard talk about his book Climbing Days in Southampton
The Meaning Of Birds by Simon Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.
Birds are all around us, they are the wild creatures that we encounter every day. They have fascinated us for millennia with their mastery of the air and ability to produce the most beautiful songs. In this book, Barnes wants us to pause and consider just how much we rely on them and them on us. Covering all manner of topics, from the way that their feathers enable them to fly, how they define the seasons, their ability to navigate huge distances across the planet and how they have fed and clothed us from time immemorial.
Science owes a lot to birds as well. Darwin’s observations of birds in the Galapagos gave us the theory of evolution; engineers have studied the way that albatrosses can fly over 600 miles in a day with scarcely a flap to improve the performance of wings. Climate scientists study migration patterns and times to see glimpse the subtle changes that climate change is having. It is packed full of fascinating details and anecdotes on birds, like how the feathers can be light, waterproof and enable flight, and a subtly different feather can be the most efficient insulator we know. Modern technology helped us discover the hidden sounds in the songs and the precise speed of the Peregrines stoop.
Barnes has given us a well written, heartfelt book about the wonders of birds. It is a broadbrush look at the world of birds and the subjects are varied as the birds you can discover through your binocluars. This book will make you smile too, as nestled in amongst the science and facts is a tongue-in-cheek humour like the irony of tucking into a chicken sandwich when watching birds.. Throughout the book are lots of fine line drawings taken from Eighteenth century bird books, and I think that this lifts it from being another book about our feathered friends to make it a real pleasure to read. It is a book that can be dipped into without losing anything, and most importantly conveys his deep passion for his subject. Great stuff.
A Natural History of the Hedgerow by John Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
One of the things that you notice when coming in to land at an airport in the UK is our patchwork pattern of fields and hedges that makes this green and pleasant land. It is a unique part of our heritage, and in some cases hedge lines can be traced back hundreds and occasionally thousands of years. Not only do they add some much to our countryside, but they are literally a lifeline to our birds and mammals as well as being home to all sorts of other plants and fungi.
In this book the well known naturalist Wright takes us on a voyage of discovery with the humble hedge. He weaves together natural with cultural history along with a comprehensive list of the flora, fauna and fungi found in a most hedges. The scope is widened with the inclusion of other ways of separating crops from hungry livestock, including dry-stone wall, Cornish hedges (also walls) and the ornate fences. It is a book full of fascinating historical references and entertaining facts with plenty of high quality photos. It makes for a fascinating reference book, and when it is out in paperback will definitely be added to my library.
Have just got Simon Garfield’s new book through the post:
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Agnieszka has lived in her village for all of her life; It is nestled in a valley alongside a river, but it is bordered by the Wood; a dark place full of powerful magic that casts its shadow over the whole kingdom. But Agnieszka has other things on her mind; she has almost reached the age of 17, and she will stand with her friends at the next choosing when the Dragon makes his appearance. Her greatest fear is that she will loose her closest friend, Kasia, who everyone thinks has the qualities that this wizard will demand. When girls are released a decade later, they stop briefly in their home before leaving the village for ever. The speculation as to what has happened to them terrifies her almost as much as succumbing to the forces that haunt the Wood.
But her fears are unfounded, because what the Dragon seeks with the girl he chooses is not visible beauty, but one with a natural magic deep within her soul and that is the one thing that Kasia doesn’t have.
So begins a original and imaginative fantasy that is unlike anything that I have ever read before. I loved the natural magic that she uses in the book and the way that they use it to combat the elements in the forest. It is deeply rooted in the myths and legends of forest lore from European history and the way she portrays the Wood is almost like a character itself, drawing and evoking the subconscious, primeval fears of the forests that we all have. The plot was reasonable, but a tad predictable and the characters were fairly good, with qualities and flaws in equal measure. The most disappointing bit was the end, which fizzled out for me, hence four stars. Otherwise really enjoyable.
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