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One Place de l’Eglise by Trevor Dolby

28/06/2023 / Paul / 2 Comments

4.5 out of 5 stars

Travelling and going on holiday to another country is a great way to experience what that place is like. You bring home the memories and a dodgy bottle of something that sits at the back of the drink cupboard. To really experience a place though, you have to move there. Trevor Dolby was one of those who had taken the plunge.

They had been looking for a while spending weekends looking at various properties, but finding nothing suitable until they found this property in the village of Causses-et-Veyran almost by chance. There is the inevitable story of moving in and him and a friend trying to move furniture that four people could barely lift.

The book is full of his little stories of living there, learning how to navigate their way around the French bureaucracy, finding the best baker and knowing who is the best builder to use. They discover the delights of the vide-greniers, and learn just how much rain a storm can unleash on the village in the summer. He swims in the local rivers with a capybara, indulges in the local wines, has lots of lunches and starts to become a full member of the village when he is part of the protests against the Post Office.

I really enjoyed this. It felt to me like he was evoking A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle, the book that got me into travel writing when I first read it many many years ago. (I really must reread it one day). It had a similar vibe in the way that he writes about the place he has settled and the people who live there too. There are pastiches of that book and caricatures of the people around him as well as the inevitable stories of renovating a really old building in another country. There are also parts of his past life as a publisher and a poignant tribute to his son.

Anticipated Books for Autumn 2023

23/06/2023 / Paul / 6 Comments

I have been through 23 catalogues so far and it is that time of the year when I release the list of books coming out in the Autumn that I really like the sound of. It is not a full list, there are many more books being published than I have included here. It is not complete, so this may be updated if I come across any more after this has been published.

Bloomsbury

The Other Pandemic – James Ball

Code of Conduct – Chris Bryant

The Globemakers – Peter Bellerby

Slow Seasons – Rosie Steer

Unfinished Woman – Robyn Davidson

The Gardener of Lashkar – Larisa Brown

God Is An Octopus – Ben Goldsmith

Bodley Head

Techno-Feudalism What Killed Capitalism – Yanis Varoufakis

Bradt

Call of the Kingfisher: Bright Sights and birdsong in a Year by the River – Nick Penny

Canongate

Footprints in the Woods: The Secret Life of Forest and Riverbank – John Lister-Kaye

Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside – Finding Home in an English Country Garden – Marchella Farrell

The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World – James Crawford

Namesake: Reflections on A Warrior Woman – N.S. Nuseibeh

Let the Light Pour In – Lemn Sissay

A History of Women in 101 Objects: A walk through female history – Annabelle Hirsch Tr. Eleanor Updegraff

The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews – Ed Adam Biles

Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans in China – Noo Saro-Wiwa

Cheerio

Shopping Lists: A Consuming Fascination – Ingrid Swenson

Faber & Faber

Cahokia Jazz – Francis Spufford

The Farmer’s Wife – Helen Rebanks

Property – Rowan Moore

The Wisdom of Sheep (And Other Animals): Observations From a Cotswold Farm – Rosamund Young

Granta

Nature’s Calendar: The British Year in 72 Seasons – Kiera Chapman, Lulah Ellender, Rowan Jaines and Rebecca Warren

A Book of Noises” Notes on the Auraculous – Caspar Henderson

Headline

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland – Tom Parfitt

Lost Music of the Holocaust – Francesco Lotoro

Hodder & Stoughton

Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses – David Scheel

Dust: The Story of the Modern World in a Trillion Particles – Jay Owens

Mountains Of Fire: The Secret Lives of Volcanoes – Clive Oppenheimer

Hurst Publishers

Stuff” Humanity’s Epic Journey from Naked Ape to Nonstop Shopper – Chip Colwell

All That Glistens: Chinese Party-State Influence in Britain – Martin Thorley

Edge of England: Landfall in Lincolnshire – Darek Turner

John Murray

Interesting Stories about Curious Words – Susie Dent

Climate Capitalism: Winning the Race to Zero Emissions – Akshat Rathi

The Race To The Future: Peking to Paris and Beyond – Kassia St Clair

The Women Who Made Modern Economics – Rachel Reeves

Starborn – Roberto Trotta

Jonathan Cape

Orbital – Samantha Harvey

Little Toller

Elowen – William Henry Serle

Oneworld

What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds – Jennifer Ackerman

What We Owe the Future: A Million-Year View – William MacAskill

The Battle for Thought: Freethinking in the Twenty-First Century – Simon McCarthy-Jones

Pan Macmillan

Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History – Ben Mezrich

Profile Books

Invisible Lines: Boundaries and Belts That Define the World – Maxim Samson

The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs – David Runciman

The Book at War: Libraries and Readers in an Age of Conflict – Andrew Pettegree

The Secret Life of John le Carré – Adam Sisman

The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary – Hana Videen

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper – Roland Allen

Pushkin

The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths Brad Fox

National Dish: Around The World In Search Of Food, History And The Meaning Of Home – Anya von Bremzen

A Line In The World: A Year On The North Sea Coast – Dorthe Nors

Reaktion Books

Way Makers: An Anthology of Women’s Writing about Walking – Kerri Andrews

Enchanted Forests: The Poetic Construction of a World before Time – Boria Sax

Alone – Daniel Schreiber Tr. Ben Fergusson

The Food Adventurers: How Around-the-World Travel Changed the Way We Eat – Daniel E. Bender

The Point of the Needle: Why Sewing Matters – Barbara Burman

Stones: A Material and Cultural History – Cally Oldershaw

Living with the Dead: How We Care for the Deceased Vibeke – Maria Viestad and Andreas Viestad

Dreamwork: Why All Work Is Imaginary – Steven Connor

Square Peg

The Owl: A Biography – Stephen Moss

Weird Medieval Guys: How to Live, Laugh, Love (and Die) in Dark Times – Olivia Swarthout

Summersdale

Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking the Shipping Forecast – Katie Carr & Toby Carr

Two Roads

Rambling Man: Travels of a Lifetime – Billy Connolly

William Collins

Kings of Their Own Ocean: Tuna, Obsession, and the Future of Our Seas – Karen Pinchin

The Bone Chests – Cat Jarman

Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands – Annie Worsley

The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London – Niall Kishtainy

So are there any there that you have heard of before? Are you now making your TBR much longer? Let me know in the comments below

A Bloggers Reading Journey – The Reading Paramedic

21/06/2023 / Paul / 2 Comments

My blogger this week is not strictly a blogger but is Jules Swain, better known as the Reading Paramedic. She has a huge following on various socials and she is a huge love of books. She can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here. I think she is now on TikTok too. Here are her answers:

What is your earliest reading memory?

I honestly can’t remember. I know I read a lot when I was younger; I still have my original Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton’s, but I can’t recall reading them!

What was your favourite childhood book?

I have fond memories of James & The Giant Peach – still love it!

What book do you remember reading at school?

Again, I honestly can’t remember. I studied English literature, aswell as English language, at GCSE and cannot for the life of me remember anything that we read. I’m not very good at this am I?!

What was the book that changed you?

This book comes very late in my life really. I read Mel Collins’ book, The Handbook for Highly Sensitive People, only last year. I genuinely didn’t know high sensitivity was a thing, and that it was a personality trait I had lived with all of my life. I am highly empathetic, to the point I worry a lot about others, which is likely why I find my role so very rewarding. Being this way comes at a cost though, in that I forget to look after myself. Recognising this trait in myself just helped me to discover that it’s ok to be the way I am.

Who was the author who helped you discover a whole new genre?

Emily Henry! I was very lucky to be sent a proof of Book Lovers pre-publication, and I’d never really read much romance before. I certainly believed romance wasn’t my thing. How wrong was I?! I loved the book, and this year I was also sent a proof of Happy Place which I loved even more! So I’ve learned to never say never, and as a result I am exploring more romance!

What was the last book that you bought?

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (a pre-order, its not out yet).

What was the last book you read?

Tell Me What I Am by Una Mannion.

What was the last book you reread?

I don’t reread often because I’ve got too many books on my TBR! But the last one I reread was The Goldfinch just before the film was released. I’d read the book a few years previously and loved it and wanted to remind myself of the full story before I went to watch the film. And I loved it all over again, and I thought the film was excellent (though never as good as the book, right?!).

What was the last book you couldn’t finish?

This is not a cop out but I honestly don’t remember. I know pretty quickly when a book isn’t for me, so I don’t then pay them much attention (is that harsh?!). I did have to put Really Good Actually by Monica Heisey down for a bit and come back to it. Not because I didn’t like it, but because a lot of what goes on in the book was resonating with my own life at the time and it was making me cry-sob! I loved it when I returned to it.

The book I am currently reading.

Pod by Laline Paull (my fifth of the six books on the Women’s Prize shortlist).

Where do you read?

Anywhere and everywhere! I always have a book with me so I can read wherever I am. I listen to audiobooks too so that I can read whilst driving and walking.

What books/genres do you turn to, to get out of a reading slump?

Just something nice, maybe lighthearted. And if things have got really bad, I’ll return to my favourite – The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean Paul Didier-Laurent. It’s my most reread book and reminds that the world and the people in it can be beautiful. And it makes me cry every time!

What was your last five-star read?

Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey. I read it whilst I was on holiday in Corfu but I can tell you it isn’t really a beach read (although I’m not one of those people who needs to read a book fitting to my surroundings)! At it’s heart, it is a book about hope, but it has references to the Holocaust and at times it is devastating. A hard one to recommend but the writing is exceptional.

How many books do you currently own?

I have no idea and don’t want to know either!

What book did you last buy based on the cover?

A special edition of Yellowface, not necessarily the cover but the spredges!

What book do you always recommend?

The Reader on the 6.27, followed closely by The Remains of the Day.

Babes In the Wood by Mark Stay

14/06/2023 / Paul / 2 Comments

4 out of 5 stars

Woodville has more or less returned to normal after the Crow Folk were banished from the village, war has arrived too, with planes being seen overhead on a daily basis. It is brought very much to home when one crashes into the local garage.

Fay arrives there just in time to realise that there is a car stuck with people inside. She rescues the young lad and three children from the burning garage. They are Jewish emigrants from Germany who got out just as the Nazis clamped down and are on their way to the local manor house where they have been offered accommodation by Lord and Lady Aston.

But this is not a typical village and as she comforts them she has a vision of the eldest that chills her to the bone. Magic can be felt in the air once again by Faye. She catches up with Miss Charlotte and Mrs Teach to tell them what happened. They realise that the children are being sought by a German master of magic, who is after something else too, something that could change the outcome of the war…

I think that I am going to like this series. The characters are entertaining and in this second book, they are starting to develop a little more. It is set a month after the first book and Stay has written it well. It has the same tension that the first one has and it is a great page-turner.

In some strange way, a lot of it feels plausible, even though it is very much a book about magic and witches. But there was the odd thing that seemed out of place. I would have liked a little more of the back story of Faye being taught by the other two witches. I do like the little nods to other fantasy series buried in the text, it is a nice touch. I thought that the first book had the edge over this one, but that is really splitting hairs. Looking forward to the next one now, and I have just seen that the fourth book has been announced too.

Brittany – Stone Stories by Wendy Mewes

12/06/2023 / Paul / 2 Comments

4 out of 5 stars

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

We have a lot of ancient history in Dorset, there are many Iron Age hillforts, barrows and henges and we even have the Dorset Cursus. We have a number of stones placed in significant places by the people of that time, but sadly we don’t have many stone circles as Wiltshire, but we do have some.

Brittiany though has so many stone circles and other megalithic monuments. We can only speculate as to why these huge stone menhirs were erected in the landscape but they must have had some ritual or symbolic meaning or reason for people to go to all that effort. I have a book called, The Standing Stones of Europe which has details of them. I haven’t read it yet, but having looked at some of the photos in the book and online, they are quite spectacular.

With each of these sites there is often a story or piece of folklore associated with them, be it Druids or giants, fairies and other supernatural beings. But the stories they began with aren’t always the stories that we know about these days. They have acquired their own folklore along the way, there has been religious appropriation by the church over the years and some have come to be known by relatively modern rituals.

Rather than looking at these neolithic sites on a regional basis, each of the twelve chapters has a theme that links each of the places in one way or other. It begins with Chaos, and looks at the way that stones were naturally left after the last ice age and the legends that became associated with these places, including the elemental forest and boulders of Huelgoat. As early groups of people began to inhabit the landscape they started to move these stones about and erect them in places that had some meaning to them. What that was we will never know, but I know that we can still feel some of the elements that made those particular sites important. The final chapters of the book bring us up to the modern age with memorials that have been created recently in stone and the way that sites have been deliberately destroyed and the way that some people have reused the stones to mark the landscape.

I really liked this book and thought it was fascinating. I know very little about the standing stones in Northern Europe and I thought that this was a really good introduction to them. I like that this is not an academic tome, they can be a little dry after all, but this is a modern take on these places and how they have affected people over time. The drawings by Alan Montgomery throughout the book are really lovely and add a nice touch. If there was one tiny flaw with this, I thought that it could have included some maps of the locations of the sites discussed as one day I would like to visit some of them. It has also reminded me that I need to read some of the other books that I have on these sites.

A Bloggers Reading Journey – Donna’s Reviews

07/06/2023 / Paul / 2 Comments

I have been a bit amiss in posting these, so there will be some over the new few weeks. First is Donna who can be found here on Twitter and here on Instagram. She describes herself as an avid reader, who support authors, She also has a BSc (Hons) in Forensic Science.

What is your earliest reading memory?

This is really embarrassing. I loved reading so much at school, that when I was very little, 5 or so, I was so desperate to read to the teacher that I wouldn’t admit if wet myself, but they noticed and I was so upset that I missed my slot to read.

What was your favourite childhood book?

Has to be the Magic Faraway Tree

What book do you remember reading at school?

First book I really remember reading is Lord of the Flies

What was the book that changed you?

The Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews

Who was the author who helped you discover a whole new genre?

Mark Tilbury and Abattoir of Dreams, a book that changed my life in many ways.

What was the last book that you bought?

The Ravens Mark by Christie J Newport

What was the last book you reread?

Bad to the Bone by Tony J Forder

What was the last book you couldn’t finish?

I can’t remember, I tend to finish 99% of books I start.

The book I am currently reading

Five Down by Tom Sibson

Where do you read?

Usually on my sofa, but I will read absolutely anywhere.

What books/genres do you turn to, to get out of a reading slump?

I will either go back to Harry Potter, or read something funny.

What was your last five-star read?

The Ravens Mark by Christie J Newport, simply stunning read.

How many books do you currently own?

I truly have no idea, I imagine its over a thousand now. Half of those are signed. I have no more space to put new books.

What is the oldest book on your bookshelves?

I think it’s my copies of Roald Dahl books that are barely held together anymore.

What book did you last buy based on the cover?

The Circus of Nightmares by Conrad Jones. Scary clown in front a fair. Fantastic cover, of course…I’ve not actually read it yet!!

What book do you always recommend?

Abattoir of Dreams by Mark Tilbury and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I’ve added Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus just this year.

May 2023 Review

05/06/2023 / Paul / 2 Comments

Even though we had three bank holidays in May, I didn’t get as much read as I hoped. Story of my life really. However, I did manage to read 16 in the end and had three books of the month and here they are:

Books Read

Brittany – Stone Stories – Wendy Mewes – 4 Stars

The Fell – Sarah Moss – 3 Stars

Threads – William Henry Searle – 3.5 Stars

Enchantment – Katherine May – 3.5 Stars

Elegy For A River – Tom Moorhouse – 3.5 Stars

Shaping the Wild – David Elias – 4 Stars

Wild City – Florence Wilkinson – 4 Stars

The Golden Valley – Phil Cope – 3.5 Stars

Two Cures for Love – Wendy Cope – 3.5 Stars

The Passengers – Will Ashon – 3.5 Stars

Sarn Helen – Tom Bullough – 4 Stars

Coffee First, Then The World – Jenny Graham – 4 Stars

Glowing Still – Sara Wheeler – 4 Stars

Book(s) Of The Month

Taking Flight – Lev Parikian – 4.5 Stars

Real Dorset – Jon Woolcott t 4.5 Stars

Between The Chalk And The Sea – Gail Simmons – 4.5 Stars

Top Genres

Travel – 12

Natural History – 12

Fiction – 9

Poetry – 8

History – 5

Science Fiction – 5

Memoir – 5

Photography – 3

Fantasy – 3

Social History – 2

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 7

Simon & Schuster – 3

Bloomsbury – 3

Little Toller – 3

William Collins – 3

Monoray – 3

Orbit – 2

Michael Joseph – 2

Fum D’Estamps Press – 2

Jonathan Cape – 2

Review Copies Received

Lost In The Lakes: Notes From A 379-Mile Walk In The Lake District – Tom Chesshyre

Brazilian Adventure – Peter Fleming

Hard Lying; An Intelligence Officer on the Levantine Shore, 1914-1919 – Lewen Weldon

Travellers Through Time: A Gypsy History – Jeremy Harte

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives – Katie Holten

The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths – Brad Fox

Library Books Checked Out

Enchantment : Reawakening Wonder In An Exhausted Age – Katherine May

In Her Nature: How Women Break Boundaries In The Great Outdoors : A Past, Present And Personal Story – Rachel Hewitt

How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves – Tristan Gooley

Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir Of Poverty, Nature And Resilience – Natasha Carthew

Nomads : the wanderers who shaped our world – Anthony Sattin

Books Bought

Selected Poems 1923 – 1958 – E.E. Cummings

Selected Poems – W.H. Auden

New Selected Poems 1966-1987 – Seamus Heaney

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History – Lewis Buzbee

How to be a Knowledge Ninja: Study Smarter. Focus Better. Achieve More. – Graham Allcott

Dorset (The King’s England) – Arthur Mee

A Chip Shop in Poznań: My Unlikely Year in Poland – Ben Aitken

Boat in Our Baggage: Around the World With a Kayak – Maria Coffey

Unknown Dorset – Donald Maxwell

Jade City – Fonda Lee

Last Chance to See – Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine

Nala’s World: One Man, His Rescue Cat, and a Bike Ride around the Globe – Dean Nicholson & Garry Jenkins

A Wild Life: My Adventures Around the World Filming Wildlife – Martin Hughes-Games

The English Village – Richard Muir

Any from there that you have read or now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

June 2023 TBR

01/06/2023 / Paul / 4 Comments

Hello again. Here is my June TBR. I have quite a few challenge books lined up this month as I have once again signed up to Cathy at 746Books 20 Books Of Summer Challenge. I have a few books on walks to read and a fair number of library books. So without further ado, here is the list of books that I will be picking around 16 to 18 books from:

Still Reading

Between The Chalk And The Sea: A Journey On Foot Into The Past – Gail Simmons

Review Books

Isles at the Edge of the Sea – Jonny Muir

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist – Tim Birkhead

The House of Islam – Ed Husain

On the Scent: Unlocking The Mysteries Of Smell – And How Losing It Can Change Our World – Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright

Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day – Dan Keel

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife: 3rd edition – Peter Holden & Geoffrey Abbott

Reconnection: Fixing our Broken Relationship with Nature – Miles Richardson

One Fine Day: A Journey Through English Time – Ian Marchant

The Possibility of Life: Searching for Kinship in the Cosmos – Jaime Green

Once Upon a Raven’s Nest: A Life On Exmoor In An Epoch Of Change Catrina DaviesReview Books The View from the Hill: Four Seasons in a Walker’s Britain – Christopher Somerville

Across A Waking Land: A 1,000-Mile Walk Through A British Spring – Roger Morgan-Grenville

Minor Monuments – Ian Maleney

Cry of the Wild: Tales Of Sea, Woods and Hill – Charles Foster

Hard Lying; An Intelligence Officer on the Levantine Shore, 1914-1919 – Lewen Weldon

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives – Katie Holten

Other Books

The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey Of The Iconic Land Rover Expedition – Alex Bescoby

A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution – Travis Elborough

Wanderers: A History of Women Walking – Kerri Andrews

The Ten Equations That Rule The World And How You Can Use Them Too – David Sumpter

Cornerstones: Wild Forces That Can Change Our World – Benedict Macdonald

Small Island: A History Of Britain In 12 Maps – Philip Parker

Grounding: Finding Home In A Garden – Lulah Ellender

Apple Island Wife: Slow Living In Tasmania – Fiona Stocker

In Search Of One Last Song: Britain’s Disappearing Birds And The People Trying To Save Them – Patrick Galbraith

Waypoints: A Journey On Foot – Robert Martineau

Challenge Books

Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland – Lisa Schneidau

Bloom: From Food to Fuel, the Epic Story of How Algae Can Save Our World – Ruth Kassinger

Exciting Times – Naoise Dolan

Nightingale – Marina Kemp

Acts of Desperation – Megan Nolan

Open Water – Nelson Caleb Azumah

Here Comes the Miracle – Anna Beecher

The Testaments – Margaret Atwood

Poetry

My Darling from the Lions Rachel Long

Photobooks

David Weston: An Artist at Home and Abroad – David Weston

20 Books Of Summer 2023

31/05/2023 / Paul / 14 Comments

It is almost June. It is scary just how fast this year is going. And whilst the bank holiday weather was remarkably sunny, as I type this there are big black clouds building outside my office window. , And being almost June must mean that it is time for 20 books of Summer again, the challenge dreamt up by Cathy at 746 Books.

It is a challenge for bloggers and anyone else who wants to and the aim is to try and read through 20 books that are on their TBR. I have tried for the past few years. In the first year, I read 18, in 2020 managed 12 in 2021 only 10 and in 2022 I almost finished with 19 books read! Even though I have never finished it, I like the idea of it and It is good to support other bloggers in what they are doing to promote reading. l like to pick themes usually, I have had travel, outstanding review books and I combined it with a natural history challenge last year. This year I am going for something really different, fiction!!!!!

For those at the back who have just fainted, let me explain. I buy a lot of books and with all that has been going on over the past year, I have stepped back on the amount of reviews I am writing. te plan for these is just to read and rate them and pass them on to others who may (or may not) want to read them. So here are the twenty books that I am aiming to read.

A Perfect Explanation	Eleanor Anstruther
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street	Natasha Pulley
The Bedlam Stacks	Natasha Pulley
Himself	Jess Kidd
Don’t Look Now	Daphne du Maurier
Mayhem	Sarah Pinborough
Exciting Times	Naoise Dolan
Nightingale	Marina Kemp
Acts of Desperation	Megan Nolan
Open Water	Nelson Caleb Azumah
Here Comes the Miracle	Anna Beecher
The Testaments	Margaret Atwood
Hot Milk	Deborah Levy
The Mermaid of Black Conch	Monique Roffey
From a Low and Quiet Sea	Donal Ryan
Blood Storm	Colin Forbes
Year of the Golden Ape	Colin Forbes
One August Night	Victoria Hislop
The Last Dance And Other Stories	Victoria Hislop
The Acid Test	Élmer Mendoza Tr. Mark Fried

I am happy to pass these on, so if there is anything that you want to read I can send it on. A couple are spoken for though

Follow the hashtag #20booksofsummer22 to follow those who are taking part this year.

Real Dorset by Jon Woolcott

26/05/2023 / Paul / 4 Comments

4.5 out of 5 stars

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

I didn’t grow up in Dorset, but since moving here just over 18 years ago I felt that I had come home. It was odd because even though my grandfather was born in Bridport, we didn’t know anything else about his family. As I researched this history we found family links in West Dorset going back to 1800. I had returned to a place that fitted me well.
I joined the local libraries soon after we moved and I tried to read as much as I could about Dorset. Most of them have come from that great publisher, Dovecote Press, originally based just north of Wimborne. From these books, I learnt a lot about this beautiful county. But with two, then three small children in tow, getting to see some of the spots hasn’t always been easy.

We found our favourite places and then returned to them time again. Only recently have we started to travel more across Dorset exploring places that we have only heard about.
Jon Woolcott knows the county well too. He grew up just across the border and having moved around a bit ended up in the north of the county. Whilst he likes all the well-known spots, the parts of the county that have always fascinated him is the lesser-known places, the hidden and forgotten. Rather than this being another guidebook about the things to see that most other books would have, he walks or cycles and occasionally drives all over the county.

The book is split into five sections, north, south, east, west and central and for each of these we are led to around ten to twelve of the place that Woolcott wants to tell the story of. Some of his trips are to well-known towns across the county, Swanage, Bridport, Dorchester and so on. But what really piques his interest is those little know or long-forgotten places that still have stories to tell. The artists retreat in Long Crichel, where the arrest of two members of the group led to a long overdue change in the law. I learnt about the town that the poet Laureate loved.

As well as more recent history, for example, the decimation of the branch lines across the county by Beeching, takes him to a lot of places that have the memories of the railways left imprinted on the landscape. There is a lot of ancient history in Dorset too, ancient Iron Age hillforts and barrows are strewn liberally across the landscape and it has the longest cursus that can still be traced. He visits one of my favourite spots, Knowlton. It is a henge that has existed 4500 years before the Normans built a church in the middle to claim it for Christianity. Th old religion has claimed it back now and it has an otherworldly appeal to it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book on Dorset. Woolcott took me to familiar haunts, Poole, West Bay and so on. The delight behind this book is going to places that I knew of, but didn’t know much about and learning more about the county I love. It is a book that was written in the moment too, some of it was written in between the lockdowns and there is a light commentary on the various political car crashes that we had in 2022. I did like the notes which have his gentle humour all the way through and it has a great map courtesy of the brilliant Tess of the Vale. I know have an even longer list of places that I know want to go to now.

Disclaimer: I must admit to being a friend of the author and am mentioned in the acknowledgements.