On the Road… with Kids: One Family’s Life-Changing Gap Year by John Ahern
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

John Ahern thought that he was living the dream; a high-flying career, a plush house, a loving wife and growing family, but what some would deem to be a successfully life was not making him happy. After a career changing moment, he needs to get out of the rat race. The adventure is conceived; take a year off, rent out the house and travel around Europe for a whole year. They buy a tatty motorhome over the internet and after getting everything settled, leave Australia for their European road trip.

Arriving in Holland, they head to the dealership to pick up their camper. It is a bit bigger than they thought, well from the outside anyway; inside is another matter as they crash into cupboards and bang heads. The vendor shows them how everything works and they decide to camp nearby the first couple of nights, just to get the hang of it. They learn the ropes with their new home on wheels, before heading north into Scandinavia to visit Denmark, the first of their 30 countries that they will go through.

What an adventure it is too. They can go to wherever they want, at the time that suits them best. The family see and experience so many things as they travel, even venturing into North Africa. Ahern writes with a wry sense of humour, recounting the escapades and trials and tribulations of travelling with two small children. It is a life changing moment too, they realise that priorities needed to change in the way that they live, and they start to consider getting out of the rut of having the big house and lifestyle, but having to work long hours and earn loads to pay for it all. Overall it is a really entertaining book; worth reading for those that are contemplating the idea of a long road trip. Maybe just maybe…

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Climbing Days by Dan Richards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The chance discovery of a book called Climbing Days by one Dorothy Pilley, a pioneering mountain climber of the early twentieth century starts Dan Richards on a deeply personal journey, for Pilley is his great-great aunt. He was aware of her and her husband Ivor Richards because of the stories of their exploits in the high Alps from his father and other relatives, but she was still an enigma to him. Maybe climbing the same mountains and walking the same passes, with her memoir as a guide, will help him understand her.

First though, he needs to learn how to climb. Trips to the Lake District, Scotland and Wales are his training grounds as he learns the correct way to ascend before travelling to the Alps. He visits a cousin in Spain who knew her and spends time with him pouring over photos and learning more of her character. There are a visit to Cambridge, meeting with Robert Macfarlane and finding out about the exploits of Ivor whilst he was there. However, all of this is a precursor to his ultimate desire, travelling to the Swiss Alps to climb the 4357m high Dent Blanche, following in her footsteps.

Richards has written a most satisfying book. It is a mix of history, memoir and travel and he has the balance of each genre just right. He has managed to highlight her achievements in life by drawing on different peoples perspectives; his father, his cousins and the Swiss guides, as well as his own journey of discovery. It is a physical and emotional voyage as he climbs the mountains and clambers back up the family tree. The book has photos liberally scattered throughout of his adventures and of the people he met as well as reproductions from the photo albums of Dorothy and Ivor; they enhance the book really well. Pilley was held in high regard by those that knew her and the intention of following the footprints of his great-great aunt in the mountains is a great idea. It is a fitting eulogy to a trailblazing woman, who was way ahead of her time.

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Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A family is left bereft after the death of a mother; two small boys face a future with no joy and their father, a poet and scholar sees only a hollow life populated with well-meaning people. Into this emptiness comes the crow. He threatens to stay until they no longer need him, acting as a focus for their grief and becoming part of the family as healer and babysitter. With the crow as their antagonist, tormenting as much as assisting them, the physical effects of their loss slowly ebb away.

‘The life and song of their mother. Unfinished. Beautiful. Everything’

Porter’s mix of styles and short punchy text make this a fast read, but it is raw, spiky and emotional. It is cleverly done, especially writing about such an emotive subject as death. It is told from three perspectives, the father, the boys and the crow and he even manages to inject a little humour into the prose, whilst capturing the highs and very deep lows of anguish at their loss. 3.5 stars overall.

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Woodbrook by David Thomson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Near the old port of Sligo in Ireland is a large house called Woodbrook; it is so well known that the area around it also takes its name from the house. A family called the Kirkwood have owned the house since the seventeenth century. At the age of eighteen David Thomson was appointed as a tutor to Phoebe Kirkwood in 1932. He ended up staying 10 years. In this memoir, he describes how he came to love the house and the region, and how he slowly fell for his pupil. As well as the story of the family and house, it is about Ireland in between the wars when there was a much slower pace of life.

There were sections of this book that I really liked, in particular his travel around on a bike and personal interaction with the locals and other characters. Whilst I realise that it is important to set the context, I felt that there was too much history in the book for a memoir and it just felt that I was wading through it. Even though the time he was there this was after the civil war and into the Second World War, it was a tough life there and his recollection is lyrical but quite melancholy. Overall was ok to read, just didn’t live up to the promise of ‘masterpiece’ for me.

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Field Notes from the Edge: Journeys through Britain’s Secret Wilderness by Paul Evans
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Someone once told Paul Evans that Britain had no wilderness left. Man has eradicated all things natural from the Neolithic onwards where what is left are the estuaries, unreachable cliffs and those places in our minds eye. Evans disagrees and in this book his is taking us on a journey to the natural spaces where one borders another, to see what is left and to see what is possible. This trip will take us up ridges, over floodplains, to islands past ruins and to the strandlines where land meets sea. There he reveals nature in its rawest state, at that pinnacle between exquisite and peril.

From his home in Wenlock Edge, Evans seeks out the natural world and brings it alive with his eloquent prose. But he draws on more than that in this book; there is elements of history and culture as well as poetry and razor sharp observation. Even though I read the Guardian, I haven’t knowingly read any of his articles in there, but after this book, I will definitely be reading them now.

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At Night: A Journey Round Britain from Dusk Till Dawn by Dixe Wills
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There is an alternative side to Britain, a side only revealed, though that is probably the wrong word, at night. Familiar landscapes become eerie and disorientating, but also calmer and quieter. Animals and people not normally seen during the day emerge. Other senses are enhanced and you become more aware of the smells and sounds around you. With your sight diminished, it takes a while to adjust to the dark, but on a moonlit night you can still see well.

In this quirky, delightful book, Wills goes looking for Britain at night. He joins in with an overnight bike ride, cycling from London to Dunwich. His regular bike was stolen, so he is on a spare bike and it isn’t quite roadworthy. He travels on the overnight sleeper train from Scotland to London and spend a night on the island of Skomer watching out for Manx shearwaters. The legend says that a night spent on Cadair Idris will turn you mad or into a poet, so Wills has to give that a go. He lives in London, and one of his jaunts was spending time wandering around the same streets that Dickens trod, revealing a whole new aspect of the city to him.

Like his other books, this is a really enjoyable read. He has a knack of choosing subjects that are rarely touched on by other writers, and by exploring the various aspects of the country at night he has found another niche. There are tips on moving safely at night too, as he wants us, the readers, to venture into the night in the same way that he did. Worth a read, and I am looking forward to his next book.

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The Green Road by Anne Enright
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The children of Rosaleen and the late Pat Madigan have grown up and scattered from the nest. They have roamed near and far from their home; reaching Canada, third world countries and down the road in Dublin. After she announces that she wishes to sell the family home, the children, Dan, Emmet, Constance and Hanna are drawn back for one last Christmas. This final celebration with their challenging but difficult mother will bring to the surface the tensions that have always been there as the children face a change that none of them expected.

The quality of the writing is excellent, making it effortless to read. Enright has managed to capture perfectly the mood and moments of the era. The characters of the four children are briefly sketched in individual chapters before they are thrust together in the family reunion in the second part of the story, where the strains in the relationships are tested. If you are looking for a complex plot then this might not be the book for you as not a lot happens; just the deeply fragmented layers of family sagas. It did feel a bit clichéd though, otherwise it was a fine read.

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Moods of Future Joys: Around the World by Bike Part One: From England to South Africa by Alastair Humphreys
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Harbouring a desire to ride round the world Alastair Humphreys had saved and planned it for ages, and at the age of 24 he was ready to leave. Or was he? Huge doubts had set in and he was worrying about all sorts of things, but he took the plunge and set off to the continent. As the days passed through Europe, confidence grew and after a couple of weeks cycling he was approaching Istanbul, and the prospect of leaving Europe and moving into Asia. Then the September 11th attacks happened. This changed everything and made the route through Iran, and Afghanistan he’d had in mind, untenable. Instead he had to turn right and pedal through a tense middle east and head into the wild lands of Africa.

So begins the first part of Humphreys global journey. It is well written account of his ride and encounters with the people of each country he passes through. Almost exclusively he finds that people are friendly and welcoming, bar the odd one or two, and even though he was strongly advised not to ride some of the countries, he takes a risk. He writes with an open heart and he tells us the moments where he is at his lowest ebb and his moments of elation. Overall a very enjoyable read; looking forward to the second half soon.

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