Posted inBooks
Aurochs and Auks: Essays on Mortality and Extinction by John Burnside
This book is not an easy read. This is probably as it should be, given the subject material – the death of the individuals, species and the planet, and the…
Posted inWords
Deliverance
For days there had been no signs of human life. Pine forests shrouded in snow and half-frozen lakes glittering in the sun stretched into an unspoilt Canadian wilderness. It was…
Posted inBooks
I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain
Anita Sethi begins her book I Belong Here with an account of racial abuse. Travelling on the TransPennine Express train, a man insults her, saying, amongst other things too vile…
Posted inBooks
The Five Acre Forest
Everyone has their own idea of home, and what home entails, for Trish Nicholson that idea came to the realisation on a sand dune in New Zealand, thus buying and…
Posted inBooks
The White Birch
Edgelands, not the ones where concrete and vegetation intersect, but the ones where culture and nature face each other in the mirror. A major thread in Tom Jeffrey’s new book,…
Posted inWords
Stories of Place and Belonging
‘Where do you come from?’ I used to hate that question. I never knew how to answer. Did it mean ‘Where were you born?’ or ‘Where do you live?’ Or…
Posted inBooks
The Seafarers
Stephen Rutt has written a devotional tribute to two liminal tribes, seabirds and the ornithologists who have sought to unearth some of their secrets. In this illuminating book, you will…
Posted inBooks
Time Among the Maya
From a young age I've been fascinated with ancient cultures around the world, whether it be the Druids, Egyptians, ancient Greeks or indeed the Maya there's always a sense of…
Posted inBooks
The Stonemason
In The Stonemason: A History of Building Britain, Andrew Ziminski takes us on a history of building in Britain, beginning with our Neolithic ancestors through to our modern age. A…
Posted inWords
Berkshire’s Healing Landscape
I write about how the land holds us closer than we know and heals us always. I wrote earlier on of how the rivers of Warwickshire silently supported me and…