The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What makes writing good? Is is a pedantic knowledge of of all the rules and having perfect grammar and punctuation or understanding those rules and knowing when to bend them? Writing well is not an easy task, ask any author who has a deadline, as it demands consistency and coherence. In this book the linguist Steve Pinker brings us the latest scientific understanding about what makes our language great.

The book is full of examples of how to write well, as well as illustrations of how not to do it. His wit and humour underlies all that he writes, as he outlines best practice, and then mentions that he disobeyed the rules in the paragraph before and did you notice? He has selected a number of cartoons to illustrate his points and has a series of anecdotes to reinforce the points that he is making, the most amusing of which was where an academic had written a critic of Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss, pointing out all her grammatical errors; he then had another author write an article highlighting the errors he had made. It could have gone on forever…

Overall it was worth reading. It is written from an American linguistic perspective, but he does acknowledge the subtle differences between their language and ours. The English language is an immense too that has layers and layers of complexity and subtlety, and this goes so way to give modern writers a framework.

One to dip into again I think.

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Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage by Kathleen Winter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Northwest passage is the route across the roof of the world at the very top of the Americas connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and is a thing of myth and legend. It has claimed whole ships and countless lives as they ventured into the ice and uncharted territories. With the rise of global temperatures this passage is now open to shipping, but it is still a place of mystery and unknown landscapes. In 2010 Kathleen Winter was asked if she would like to join a ship making this voyage, as the official writer. She would join various people on the ship, historians, scientists and archaeologists, each there for a particular reason.

Her journey started in Greenland. The towns and villages have gaudy coloured homes that perch on the shores of this immense landmass; it is part of Denmark at the moment, and their influence is strong over the local population. As they reached the shores of North Canada, Winter is starting to get to know the others on the ship and start the process of making friends, and understanding why they have come on this journey and learning some of the skills and knowledge that they have bought. They are given the opportunity to leave the ship at certain points and explore the landscape and meet the Inuit people. The far north is in a state of flux at the moment, and the rights of the people who have deep attachment to their land are being ridden roughshod over as nation look to exploit the vast mineral resources of the region. It is also a personal journey of reminiscences of her parent’s journey from the UK to Newfoundland to start a new life and the difficulties and challenges that she encountered starting afresh.

Winter’s lyrical prose in this book is wonderful. She treads lightly amongst her subjects, wanting to encounter places and experiences, rather than have them pointed out to her. Her descriptions of the places are intense and haunting as she evokes the stark beauty of this harsh land. She mentions one of my favourite books of all time in here too, This Cold Heaven by Gretel Ehrlich, an accoutof her seven trips to Greenland. There were times when Winter’s writing reminded me of Ehrlich’s book with her descriptions of the landscape and people. So why only four stars? As fascinating as her own personal memories were, I think that it took a little away from the journey that she undertook across this dramatic landscape.

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The Weather Experiment: The Pioneers who Sought to see the Future by Peter Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When English people are not sure what to talk about, they discuss the weather. They probably did that 300 odd years ago too, but rather than seeing that the weather was part of a global system, it was assumed that all weather was Gods will, and a storm was evidence of his displeasure. In this book Moore brings to us the men who went against the convention and dogma of the day, with the hope of unlocking the secrets of the skies and understanding what made our weather.

The pioneers of science first sought to quantify and bring order to the atmosphere. There is Luke Howard the man who described and named the different cloud formations, Francis Beaufort who devised a scale so that wind strength could be quantified. James Glaisher started in astronomy but his fascination in the weather meant that he was the ideal man to take measurements in the first trips in hot air balloons to understand the upper atmosphere. Key to it all was Admiral Robert FitzRoy, sailor, explorer, scientist and the founder of what we now know as he Met Office. There were others too; James Epsy who thought he could control the weather, and the American scientists who explained the reason why a hurricane twists. There were others who contributed, in other technologies, such as Samuel Morse who gave us the telegraph, and allowed rapid transmission of the data collected by individuals across the country to the office in Whitehall.

These men were driven by saving lives for the navy and coastal communities. They taught people how to understand the instruments that they were using to take measurements. He describes the fight that they had against the vested interests of the day, as well as they complete disbelief that these men could predict the weather and in particular storms. The first few times that FitzRoy got a storm prediction wrong he was lambasted in the papers, but the men who used these warnings knew that these were vital to their trades.

Moore brings these men together in a narrative that is fascinating and compelling in equal measure. He brings alive the drive and obsession that these men had in understanding how the weather happened, and more importantly what happens on a summer day, compared to another day. The legacy that they have given us is a much better understanding of the atmosphere, weather trends and cycles. It has also given us the Met Office. One of our national sports is slating them when they get something wrong, especially on long term predictions or missing the odd hurricane, but for the day to day forecasts they are normally pretty good. Overall a pretty good book, but I would have preferred a more UK focus as he did head across the Atlantic and Channel fairly often, but still well worth reading.

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For the Love of Radio 4 An Unofficial Companion by Caroline Hodgson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Radio 4 makes up about 95% of my radio listening with the odd venture into Radio 1 on a Friday evening for the dance music. Very rarely listen to Radio 2, though I have memories of hearing Wogan & co on as a child on my parents radio, and would never ever contemplate turning Radio 3 on. Ever.

Radio 4 is a national institution now.

This book is crammed full of facts and anecdotes on this station that offers a background murmur to millions of Britons throughout the day. Hodgson has dredged the archive and pulled together masses of detail on programmes, the people and the shows that make this station unique. The book is split into the main areas that are covered, so there are chapters on the news and political analysis, the dramas, the arts and sciences and the superb comedy shows that are available. Each chapter has lots on the programmes that fill the airwaves and how we got to where we are today with a historical snapshot of the section.

I don’t like everything that is transmitted, but it is a broad church, and there is genuinely something for everyone on the station. My favourite programmes are the Friday night satirical comedies, that have the mix of biting political satire with almost no holds barred. Great stuff. The channel is a bit weaker now on the science since Material World went, but it still has a good mix of news and documentaries. The book brings alive those programmes that is has that offer comfort to regular listeners; the unhurried tones of the shipping news, John Humphries savaging the current politicians and the metronomic pips. It is not without its flaws though. It does feel bitty as it jumps from history to fact to potted biographies of presenters.

Worth a read if you’re a fan of the station.

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The Hunt by Alastair Fothergill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is another good tie in to the BBC series, The Hunt. Through 240 still photographs and footage from the show, the book captures the life and death moments of the hunter and the meal. In the series and the book the show’s producers and cameramen roamed the entire globe, trying to get those image that define a species. They went to the bitterly cold and bleak Arctic oceans and islands to bring us killer whales and polar bears, to the humid rainforests where Harpy eagles are one of the top predators, to the blistering heat of the African savannah following lions and cheetahs after their next meal.

The images are exquisite. They have captured and selected the best moments of the hunt, using the latest technology and cameras to bring alive the energy and effort that these animals use to survive the day. Whilst filming they made some cutting edge scientific discoveries too, and the text provides details of these. The final chapter is about how they filmed the series, with photographs of the camera crews at work, and how the final fantastic images were frequently obtained after a long period of waiting, and how those watching the hunter, almost became prey. Another good coffee table book; now to watch the series.

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The Bloody Quarrel: The Complete Edition by Duncan Lay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fallon has made what may be his most fatal of errors; he has shot down the one man who he trusted to save his country. But the King sees him as a hero, rather than the murderer that he is. He is drawn into the inner circle of the King’s court where he becomes mixed up in all the court plots and intrigue. This is taking him away from the task that he came there for, rescuing him wife and the families of his men from the cruel Kottermani where they are held as slaves. But first he has to survive.

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The Redemption of Erâth: Exile by Satis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Brandyé is beginning to learn the proper meaning of solitude; exiled from his home, he is lost on the shore of a black sea, but whilst alone he realizes that he may just have an influence on the world at large, but he has to cope with Darkness closing round him. Just as he is getting used to the loneliness, he is captured by the Cosari, a seafaring nation, who celebrate their trinity of glory, battle and death.

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A Time To Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Patrick Leigh Fermor is a man of action and adventure. He walked across Europe at the age of 17 and captured a Nazi General in an audacious operation in the Second World War. He was a person who enjoyed his food and drink and was frequently the life and soul of the party. He is the last person that you would expect to venture into a monastery to spend time with the monks. He visited two monasteries in this study of religious life; a Trappist one, La Grande Trappe and a Cistercian one in France, Abbey of St Wandrille. The transition to monastery life for Fermor was quite tough, even though he took a discrete flash of brandy.

In the days that he was there, he grew to appreciate the routines and timelessness of the days. A lot of the monks day is spent in silence, particularly over meals, difficult for someone who has spent much time enjoying the social aspects of sharing food and wine. The monks that he could speak to gave him an insight to the lives that they led there, and how they lived before. In the one monastery, the librarian provided him with the key so he could enter as and when suited him, and he spent time reading his way through some of the books there. As tough as it was settling in to the monastic way of life, it was almost as difficult leaving and reverting to normal life, which surprised him somewhat. The third monastery he visited was an abandoned one in Turkey. The Rock Monasteries of Cappadocia are carved from the mountain itself, and the organic form brought calmness and the solitude that the monks required.

This is very different to the other books of his that I have read before; gone is the bravado and adventure, instead there is quiet observation and sensitive, respective prose. He brings alive the history of the places he stays too, they had been founded and built way back in time. He explores his feelings too, losing the sense of death and foreboding and restriction to enjoying the solitude and peace that being there bought. It also shows is his capacity to mix with all types of people, from the abbots whose word was law, to the lowliest monk and bring their characters out in his books. Well worth reading. 3.5 stars overall.

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