I’m a fan of Patrick Galbraith’s writing – his book In Search of One Last Song –see my review – was my blog’s book of the year in 2022 but this is an even better read. Here, again, Galbraith travels the land and talks to some interesting people in some interesting places and the subject…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – Rare Plants by Peter Marren
The first thing that strikes you on picking up this book is that it is heavy. That’s what 400 pages of high quality paper feel like. On those 400 pages are high quality images and high quality words from an author who knows how to write and who knows his subject very well. What more…
Sunday book review – The Borders: The Lands We Share by Andrew Bibby
This is an account of a walk from Edinburgh to the River Swale. Each of 21 chapters tells the tale of a section of the walk but also discusses a land use or issue relevant to that part of the journey. Such an approach must take quite some planning but the account has a steady…
Sunday book review – The Secret Life of a Cemetery by Benoît Gallot
Comments Off on Sunday book review – The Secret Life of a Cemetery by Benoît Gallot
‘In the midst of death, we are in life’ might be the subtitle of this book about the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where wildlife shares a place of rest with its human occupants. For many town-livers, the few green spaces, with their somewhat limited wild species, are important oases of peace. The author celebrates…
Sunday book review – Scientists on Survival by Scientists for XR
Comments Off on Sunday book review – Scientists on Survival by Scientists for XR
These are personal stories – by interesting people. What brings them together is that they are all from scientists involved with activism in the area of climate change. I know a few of the authors, and know of some more, so I read those first and they got me off to a good start. Unusually,…
Sunday book review – A Wilding Year by Hannah Dale
Comments Off on Sunday book review – A Wilding Year by Hannah Dale
The author is an illustrator who lives on a farm in North Lincolnshire that she and her husband have rewilded – or allowed to rewild itself. We don’t hear a lot about the farming but it is clear that this was difficult land to farm and some of it has reverted to sogginess and other…
Sunday book review – The Restless Coast by Roger Morgan-Grenville
Comments Off on Sunday book review – The Restless Coast by Roger Morgan-Grenville
This is a good read and goes straight into my list of contenders to be this blog’s book of the year. The format involves the author walking stretches of the coast of Britain investigating the places, talking to the people and trying to figure out what he makes of the issues that affect these…
Sunday book review (by Ian Carter) of Donald Watson (ed Roger Crofts)
Comments Off on Sunday book review (by Ian Carter) of Donald Watson (ed Roger Crofts)
Reviewed by Ian Carter Donald Watson is someone with whom I’ve built a connection of sorts, though we never met. I have ended up living in Galloway not many miles from the village where he spent much of his life painting the birds and the landscapes that he loved, and making his ground-breaking studies of…
Sunday book review – The Marsh Tit and the Willow Tit by Richard K. Broughton
There was a time, a few decades ago, when the most difficult thing about Marsh and Willow Tits was to know which of these two very similar species one was seeing (the calls are much easier) but now the main difficulty is seeing either of them at all. The identification features are now better known…
Sunday book review – Wild Galloway by Ian Carter
Comments Off on Sunday book review – Wild Galloway by Ian Carter
Those who enjoy Ian Carter’s writing, and very many of us do, will enjoy this latest work about his new home in Galloway. Ian encounters new species, new names and introduces us to his new surroundings. The author’s move from Devon was motivated partly by a yearning for wildness and from his fairly remote new…