Tag: Nature Writing

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2015 Memoirs Non Fiction

The Moth Snowstorm by Michael McCarthy

 Source: Personal Copy

Shortlisted for 2016 Wainwright Prize

Five words from the blurb: nature, world, destroyed, beauty, sustainable

I have now read all the books on the 2016 Wainwright Prize shortlist and I certainly saved the best for last. The Moth Snowstorm is a beautifully written book which explains the crisis facing our planet. I like to think I am well informed about environmental issues, but many of the facts were new to me and some were disturbing in their magnitude.

It is extraordinary: we are wrecking the earth, as burglars will sometimes wantonly wreck a house. It is a strange and terrible moment in history. We who ourselves depend upon it utterly are laying waste to the biosphere, the thin, planet-encircling envelope of life, rushing to degrade the atmosphere above and the ocean below and the soil at the centre and everything it supports; grabbing it, ripping it, scattering it, tearing at it, torching it, slashing at it, shitting on it

The Moth Snowstorm begins by explaining how the author fell in love with wildlife – particularly river estuaries. His descriptions were filled with passion and I admired the way he conveyed his joy at being surrounded by the natural world. His interest in wading birds enabled him to discover the crisis effecting estuaries around the world. Many are being destroyed for shipping and leisure purposes, but nobody seems to care much about these muddy flat lands. I was shocked to discover that South Korea recently built a sea wall 21 miles long, destroying the migratory feeding ground for 50 million birds.

The book also highlighted the massive reduction in the population numbers of everything from insects to wildflowers. McCarthy interviewed older people who recalled a time when wildlife was abundant. They described events such drivers stopping to clean their windscreen after driving through a cloud of moths. Sadly numbers have dropped so much that this rarely happens now. I especially liked the way that anecdotes like these were backed up with scientific data. This brought meaning to the tables of statistics, showing what large drops in population mean for our experience of the world.

Details of McCarthy’s private life were also included. These were beautifully written and only added to the emotional impact of the text.

The Moth Snowstorm could easily have become a depressing book, but instead it is a joyful one, encouraging us to appreciate the beauty of the nature around us. It is an inspiring call-to-arms and I hope that increased exposure for this book will raise awareness of the natural catastrophes that are happening globally right now. It deserves to win the 2016 Wainwright Prize and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for it when the winner is revealed at Country File Live on Friday.

 

Categories
2015 Memoirs Non Fiction

The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks

 Source: Library

Shortlisted for 2016 Wainwright’s Prize

Five words from the blurb: Lake District, farming, generations, sheep, land

James Rebanks is a farmer in the Lake District and his family have kept sheep on the fells for generations. This book explains what his life is like and how farming has changed over the centuries.

I lived in the Lake District for several years, so it was fascinating to discover what goes on behind the scenes. The places described were familiar to me and I loved learning more about the skills required to raise sheep successfully. Some people might find the detailed descriptions of sheep too much, but I was impressed by his passion and enthusiasm.

I also liked the more philosophical aspects of this book. Rebanks is a talented writer and he raised many interesting points about the lack of respect society gives to farmers and our attachment to their land:

It is a curious thing to slowly discover that your landscape is loved by other people. It is even more curious, and a little unsettling, when you discover by stages that you as a native are not really part of the story and meaning they attach to that place.

The only problem with the book was that some parts weren’t structured very well. It was fragmented in places, with random paragraphs inserted in unrelated sections. Sometimes they repeated what had already been covered; sometimes they simply threw the reader into a completely different time/place. It was disorientating and frustrating because this book could have been excellent given a bit more editing.

Overall, I recommend The Shepherd’s Life to anyone interested in the British countryside. It is an important book that records a wonderful, but sadly diminishing, way of life.

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Categories
2015 Memoirs

The Outrun by Amy Liptrot

Source: Free review copy received from Wellcome Book Prize Promoters

Shortlisted for 2016 Wellcome Book Prize

Five words from the blurb: Orkney, alcohol, searching, wildlife, hope

The Outrun combines beautiful nature writing with an honest account of one woman’s battle with alcoholism.

Amy Liptrot grew up on Orkney, but longed to escape the confines of these remote islands. At the first opportunity she moved to London, but found it hard to cope with the change of lifestyle. She turned to alcohol and her life quickly disintegrated. This book explains the difficulties she faced and how she overcame them.

I found the descriptions of alcoholism and the treatment of it interesting, but for me it was the nature writing in this book that stood out. I loved learning about the wildlife of Orkney and what it is like to live on these windswept islands. The details of her search for the elusive corncrake were especially good and I loved her descriptions of the birds and marine life that she glimpsed on her travels.

Amy has a special way of looking at the world and her insights were different from anything I’ve read before:

I stand up, alert, from my stone seat: I’ve made a breakthrough – stirred by the energy of the sea and the wind – in understanding my own behaviour. I didn’t find it in a therapist’s office, or by conscientiously working through the programme, or talking to Dee, but outdoors, watching the waves. I’ve been reading about fluid dynamics and the mathematical criteria for wave breaking, when the wave height is move than one-seventh of the wavelength. There are different types of breaking waves – spilling, plunging, collapsing, surging – but although they all collapse in different manners, there is only so much height any wave can achieve before it comes crashing down.

I loved the analytical writing style and the way it never became sentimental or self-pitying.

The Outrun is an engaging book which shows how the challenges of life can be overcome by slowing down and observing the natural world. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about wildlife, especially those with a passion for birds.

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