4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

The travel adverts that fill our media after the excesses of Christmas are there to seduce us into travelling to these beautiful places, with the promise of making your life rich with experiences. There are those who would rather strike out on their own, venturing to places around the world that do not have a mass tourist industry, with the hope of finding something for the inner spirit.

Humphreys is one of those latter people. One of his first big adventures was to cycle all around the world (both books on his journey are great by the way) and he has walked around Spain in the footsteps of Laurie Lee whilst badly playing a violin. He is also a great advocate for micro adventures, short travels and adventures that take a day or a few hours and are there to enrich your life, without draining your wallet. This book is a follow-on from that.

The basic principle is that he wanted to stay local and discover all there is to find within a short distance from his home. He bought a map centred on his home from the OS that covered 20 km by 20 km and looked at the squares it was divided up into and decided to visit each one square kilometre on a day when he was free.

Like anyone who has lived in the same area for a reasonable period of time, you tend to think that you know your locale well. Well, as Humphreys found out, I bet that you don’t. This journey of very little distance would take him back in time, to relics from the war, he discovers something called a denehole and decides to see what is inside. He passes through housing estates, and graveyards and admires the ancient yews that add a certain gravitas to the place.

He comes across tiny cottages tucked away in woods he didn’t know existed, tries a spot of mudlarking and delights in the return of the swifts. Not every discovery is pleasant, there are burnt-out cars, fly-tipping and He is continually appalled by the litter scattered all over the place and ends up collecting bagfuls to dispose of properly. There is the odd surreal discovery too, a stuffed toy in the fork of a tree, is it there for a parent to rediscover, or as a symbol of some form? He also discovers in his 20Km by 20Km area that he can’t go everywhere, he finds lots of keep-out signs some of which he chooses to ignore..

Not only did I find this a really enjoyable read, but I think it highlights something that we probably all need to do more of, by acting locally and thinking globally and not consuming vast amounts of resources just because we can. As Humphreys shows in all of the chapters in this book there are countless things that can be discovered pretty much on your doorstep. And I would hazard a guess that like he found, there are things that you had no idea existed near you.

Humphreys writes with a self-depreciating humour and a sense of wonder in almost everything that he sees or looks at. But coupled with this is the fury that he has with the way that the planet in general and his local area, in particular, is being treated. It might not be something that some readers want to hear, but it does need to be said. If you want a very different sort of travel book and one that you can use as a springboard to find out what is in your local area then this is a really good place to start.

4 out of 5 stars

As the Battle of Britain rages over the village of Woodville. Several planes have crashed and one of the villagers has been keeping parts of them in one of his barns. He is terrified when he realises that there is a poltergeist who is flinging the debris about in it. The three witches use a spell to realise the spirit. It is as they are leaving, Faye turns to see another ghost in the barn still, an airman who is scared on his face.

The three witches are visited by the leader of the Council of High Witches. It is a warlock, called Bellamy, The previous incumbent has been removed following the events covered in the previous book. He is there to ask the three witches to join him in casting a spell to stop the probable Nazi invasion.

They are going to be joined by witches from all over the country to create this cone of power and to gain maximum power for the spell tells them they will need to be skyclad. The witches are more than happy to help, but if he thinks they are getting their kit off, he has another thing coming…

These are a nice easy read and this is another enjoyable book in the series. The plot is not overly complex, and there are little subplots going on that have carried on from the previous books. I think that I worked out some of the essential plot pointss earlier in the book. It didn’t spoil it for me though. Being a series, I kind of know that everything is going to be okay, but there is a certain amount of jeopardy in the journey to the conclusion which I think makes for entertaining reading. Looking forward to the next one which I have just got out of the library.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Being an island nation we have had to get used to invaders that have regularly turned up over the past 2000 years. Most of them haven’t been particularly friendly, the Vikings spring to mind. This threat of ‘invasion’, especially those in ‘small boats’ fuelled by certain papers and politicians, coupled with the fact that most coastal towns and villages are run down or tired then these factors may be why most people in these places voted for Brexit.

This book is a tour of some of the coastal towns around the UK. It is not extensive and both the author and the illustrator visited the places together after the pandemic lockdowns to get a feel for the places and to do some people watching. They begin their journey in the English Riveria. The town of Torquay is haunted by the spectre of Faulty towers and isn’t quite what it used to be though, and feels like it is full of Little Britain bigotry. It has lost some of its charm
Weston Super-Mare is a place that I have only ever been to once. I can’t remember how old I was, but all I remember was the mud glistening in the sun and the tide went out. It was the place that Banksy chose for his theme park, Dismaland with his particular take on the English seaside.

Quite who was taking the piss out of whom has not been determined… In the time of Covid restrictions though, normal seaside activities are not happening, the donkeys that would have been plodding up and down the beach aren’t there.
Sandbanks is quite a place. It is dripping with money and should you have any desire to live there you will need a large fortune, but anyone can turn up and enjoy the beach and the views over the Purbecks and Old Harry Rocks. Just along the coast, Boscombe is a complete contrast. It has had money poured into it, but it still feels slightly seedy and rundown, but it does now have a gastropub. The pier here is a beautiful minimalist design and is a favourite of mine. Sykes mentions something here that I have never really noticed before, that almost all the benches have memorials on them, unlike other countries. As they head towards Christchurch, they find anti-vax slogans alongside the benches, the irony is not lost on the author, that these people lived long enough to be remembered because of the vaccination programmes of the 20th century. From Sandbanks one end, at the opposite end of the bay are the most expensive beach huts in the UK.

And so to Essex, a county that is often unfairly defined by its derogatory stereotypes. Clacton is drab and artificially lit by amusement arcades. They find a pub, that is allegedly the worst in the country, but they feel that have been in worse before. The mediocre food isn’t really enhanced by the karaoke serenade they are treated too either… They move further along the coast to Jaywick, here it feels like a shanty town with the jerry-rigged houses and the slide downward is very visible here. Sykes ponders if it is a precursor to the economic Brexit slide, though there is a glimmer of hope he sees in the Happy Club and its bartering system.

Sykes heads to his home patch of Portsmouth for the next journey. He recommends that it is always worth looking down, not just to avoid stepping in anything nasty, but so you can spot the engravings, inscriptions and other man-made items embedded in the ground. He marvels at the attempts to make Gosport a seaside town, whilst the industrial past and present loom over in a slightly threatening way. Even though Portsmouth has a long history, sometimes he has to look really far to see it. On a more positive note, the city has gone from being a cultural desert and a place to catch the clap to a place that is forging its own new identity.
The beach at Milton has its own strand line of plastic debris and other detritus and is not as salubrious as Sandbanks… The sluice gate is packed with rubbish and other junk, in a nasty tribute to the glamour of capitalism that is Gunwharf Keys. But one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, and his beachcomber friend, Dan, collects this junk, with the hope of finding something interesting.

Hayling Island is not quite an island, he could drive onto it, but chooses to take the ferry. Sykes has mixed memories of the place and visiting again, brings them flooding back. It was where his grandparents lived, but his uncles and aunts have less fond memories of their upbringing. They lived in poverty, surviving on benefits and budget clothing and where a treat was a trip to the funfair.

Another branch of Sykes’s family comes from Yorkshire. His grandfather joined the navy, hence why they ended up living in Portsmouth, but he feels a trip back there is due. He begins in Robin Hood bay, in a mostly left-wing county, it has been a Tory stronghold for almost a century now. It feels very different to the seaside town of the south and is discombobulating for him. Whilst in the area he feels that they should visit Whitby. He likes its unique culture and it has become a place of homage to Dracula, even though he is barely there in the book. It has expanded from that now, but don’t tell the goths, and this is the place where he eats the best fish and chips of the trip.

The first pub that they enter in Scarborough has a very disturbing political bent and so they head to the possibly wrongly named Grand Hotel. It may have been at one point, but isn’t now… They take a wander up the headland, past the bowling green. A waitress describes the place as dead, but as they have found with all the places they have visited, there is life if you know where to look.

A tour of the seaside towns of the UK wouldn’t really be a full tour if you didn’t go to Blackpool. It once was the pinnacle of the British seaside resorts, and whilst it still has it, some of the glamour has faded. They walk the sights and see the lights, have a go at bingo and partake in a mini pub crawl. It isn’t as run down as other towns they have visited, it still draws a fair number of visitors, but there is a seedy side that they come across. It seems to be holding its history well and seems to be in a good position to move forward.

I really liked this book. The mix of forensic observation of people by Sykes and the sketches by the very talented Louis Netter makes for a very unusual book indeed. But it works, or at least it did for me. I think that the reason for that is that they travelled to all of the locations in the book together and they have a certain dynamic that works really well. These dual views of what was happening around them are expertly portrayed in the art and the words. If you want to read a very different travelogue of Britain then this is a brilliant place to start.

For a long month, December always seems to go so fast. With all the things going on, I have never really seemed to have as much time to read as I want, but I did manage to finish my Good Reads challenge of 190 books again. To reach that total I had 14 books to finish, and here they all are:

Books Read

Malarkoi – Alex Pheby – 3.5 Stars

Winter’s Gifts – Ben Aaronovitch – 3.5 Stars

The Holly King – Mark Stay – 4 Stars

Shitstorm – Fernando Sdrigotti – 3.5 Stars

Travellers Through Time: A Gypsy History – Jeremy Harte – 4 Stars

I Hate Christmas: A Manifesto for the Modern-day Scrooge – Daniel Blythe – 2.5 Stars

The Lost Flock: Rare Wool, Wild Isles and One Woman’s Journey to Save Scotland’s Original Sheep – Jane Cooper – 3.5 Stars

Soundings: Journeys In The Company Of Whales – Doreen Cunningham – 3 Stars

Wild Isles – Patrick Barkham & Alastair Fothergill – 3.5 Stars

Yew – Fred Hageneder – 4 Stars

The Last Hedgehog – Pam Ayres & Alice Tait (Ill) – 3.5 Stars

Nature Tales for Winter Nights – Ed. Nancy Campbell – 3.5 Stars

Wild Wanderings – Phil Gribbon – 3 Stars

Book(s) Of The Month

This is a stunning book of art and poetry. Well

Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone – Jackie Morris – 4.5 Stars

Top Genres

Fiction – 29

Natural History – 25

Travel – 23

Poetry – 18

Memoir – 13

Fantasy – 11

History – 8

Science Fiction – 7

Art – 5

Politics – 5

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 12

Simon & Schuster – 7

Bloomsbury – 6

William Collins – 6

Penguin – 6

Little Toller – 6

Jonathan Cape – 5

Elliott & Thompson – 5

Reaktion Books – 4

Headline – 4

Review Copies Received

Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites: 44 – Ed. Katy Soar

Roads of Destiny: And Other Tales of Alternative Histories and Parallel Realms – Ed. Alasdair Richmond

The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East – Barnaby Rogerson

Library Books Checked Out

Elixir: In The Valley At The End Of Time – Kapka Kassobova

A Year in the Life: Adventures in British Subcultures – Lucy Leonelli

Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future – Philip Lymbery

Abroad in Japan: Ten Years In The Land Of The Rising Sun – Chris Broad

Books Bought

You Took the Last Bus Home – Brian Bilston

Orwell’s Roses – Rebecca Solnit

Homage to Barcelona – Colm Toibin

The Nightingale – Sam Lee

The Elder Edda – Unknown

The Peace Of Wild Things – Wendell Berry

Hermit – Jade Angeles Fitton

Dorset’s World Heritage Coast: An Archaeological Guide – John Beavis

The Greek Islands – Lawrence Durrell

In Search Of England – H.V. Morton

The Oatmeal Ark: From the Western Isles to a Promised Sea – Rory MacLean

The Time-travelling Caveman – Terry Pratchett

Legends & Folklore Dorset – Andrew Caffrey

Why Women Grow – Alice Vincent

The Road to McCarthy – Pete McCarthy

Earth Memories – Llewelyn Powys

The Mirror Of The Sea – Joseph Conrad

The Man Who Planted Trees – Jean Giono, Harry Brockway (Ill) & Aline Giono

Lev’s Violin: An Italian Adventure – Helena Attlee

Danziger’s Adventures: From Miami to Kabul – Nick Danziger

So any from that huge list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.