august 2022 books…

Wilding (Isabela Tree): This is our Bloke’s Books next book and tells the story of Charlie Burrell+Isabella Tree’s ‘leap of faith’ in handing their 3,500 acres of West Sussex farmland back to nature. The project started in 2000, when the couple were forced to accept that intensive farming of the heavy clay soils of their farm (Knepp Castle Estate) was driving them close to bankruptcy. Their project has since become a leading light for conservation in the UK – demonstrating how letting nature take over can restore both the land and its wildlife. It’s a passionate, articulate book and an inspiring story – well-researched and full of detail based on their own experiences, both the positives and negatives. It talks about how intensive farming has badly damaged the condition of our soil – resulting in the increased dependence of fertilisers and chemicals (which, in turn, fail to replenish micronutrients etc and eventually reduce crop yields) – and how re-wilding has reversed such declines. Sometimes, I found her enthusiasm somewhat off-putting but, overall, I found it a very impressive book (I learnt a lot) – although I think I’d avoid getting into a discussion with her at a party (What? Me, going to a party? Dream on!), as I could imagine her enthusiasm being a little too evangelical for me to take!
Falling Upward (Richard Rohr): I continue to struggle in my spiritual wilderness and a lovely friend lent me this book (“A spirituality for the two halves of life”) for reflection. Rohr is clearly a very intelligent, wise man (he’s a Franciscan priest) and his writings are full of astute insights… and many of my friends find him a huge support/encouragement on their own spiritual journeys. Somewhat embarrassingly, I’m afraid, I struggle with his books. I’ve previously read 2 or 3 of them and, each time, have found that they don’t really ‘speak to me’ in the way I’d hoped they would. On the face of it, I thought that this book (focusing on the ‘second half of life’) would provide a helpful roadmap on my own ‘journey’ and, while it did provide useful insights into what he described as the “mature spirituality” of growing old as a Christian, it didn’t tackle the important matter, for me, of ‘self-doubt’ (and, to be fair, the book never pretended that this was its prime objective). I think I probably need to read Brian McLaren’s book “Do I Stay Christian?”!  
Red Sauce Brown Sauce (Felicity Cloake): Cloake is (among other things) a food columnist on The Guardian newspaper and I read this book after Moira had said how much she’d enjoyed it. It’s essentially a travelogue of her cycle tour of the UK (plus the various train connections) to ‘investigate and celebrate the legendary Great British Breakfast’ – and in the process gauge the merits/popularity/preferences of brown sauce versus ketchup. I must say, she’s a very funny and entertaining writer and the book is full of her adventures, anecdotes, culinary details and amusing greed(!). Strangely, although it’s a really easy-to-read book, it took me quite a long time to finish it (it’s some 370 pages)… a very enjoyable read nevertheless.   
The Help (Kathryn Stockett): This is our next Storysmith bookgroup book… and, this month, it’s with a difference – we’re combining our get together with a viewing of the film at ‘20^th Century Flicks’. First published in 2009, the novel is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s at the peak of racial segregation. The book is narrated by three very different women: a black maid who, despite her excellent cooking skills, frequently loses her job for ‘answering back’; another black maid who is raising her 'seventeenth white child'; and, in sharp contrast, a white woman who wants to be a writer (who was herself brought up by black maids). The ‘help’ are the black community who spend their lives bringing up the children of upper-class white families - with their own children being looked after by someone else. The privileged whites are shockingly discriminating and demand continuing segregation of the black and white communities. It’s long book (some 450 pages) and, I thought, quite an onerous challenge for our monthly bookgroup… but I found it an utterly compelling, unforgettable account and managed to read it within 3 days (the final 250 pages in a late night/early morning stint!!). The author (who herself grew up in the ‘deep south’) writes quite brilliantly - informative, shocking, saddening, amusing and uplifting. A wonderful novel… which will almost certainly be one of my ‘books of the year’.
Glucose Revolution (Jessie Inchauspé): I’m really not into reading books about food(!) and blame my great mate Jez for recommending* this one to me (* he was verging on the evangelical!). It’s essentially a book about balancing one’s blood sugar (I have no real knowledge of my own blood sugar characteristics, but hey). It seems that 90% of us suffer from too much glucose in our system – although most of us don’t know it – and this book describes ways in which we can ‘flatten our glucose spikes’. Inchauspé (@glucosegoddess) has a science/mathematics/biochemistry background and writes in a simple, but very accessible, way about factors which she maintains can transform a person’s health. Fortunately (from my perspective), it’s NOT a calorie-counting food book but one in which she provides a series of science-based ‘hacks’/tips, such as: how eating foods in the right order can also aid losing weight; adding a green starter to every meal; walking/exercising for 10 minutes after a meal; reaching for vinegar (I know!) before you eat… and much, much more. The book contains LOTS of sustainable, accessible, practical guidance and, although I’m not very good at taking advice(!), I will endeavour to take some of them on board. I’m hoping to persuade Moira to read the book too – in the knowledge that as our ‘principal cook’ (and therefore the reason I eat as ‘sensibly’ as I do)(obviously, that’s MY assessment!), she’ll be implementing and encouraging me to take on board some additional ‘new eating habits’. 

‘both sides now’… and me

It’s some 53 years since I first listened to Joni Mitchell singing “Both Sides Now” (and subsequently purchased the ‘Clouds’ LP)… and was utterly captivated.  She’s continued to be my favourite singer/songwriter ever since… (as has the song).
So, this afternoon, as I was sketching and listening to old playlists on ‘Spotify’, “Both Sides Now” (the 1969 version) came on… and, for some reason, it just stopped me in my tracks.
Maybe it was because it reminded me of first meeting Moira at College (“Tears and fears and feeling proud…To say, ‘I love you’ right out loud”)… perhaps it was because it resonated with us meeting up with a few old friends recently… perhaps it was simply because it reminded me how long I’ve loved this song and that we’ve all become old in the process?
Whatever it was, I found myself in floods of (happy) tears.
It actually made me stop listening to ‘Spotify’ and to check out the YouTube footage of Mitchell singing the song at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival… and the crying continued.
And, finally, I watched+listened to the YouTube recordings from the 2022 Newport Folk Festival… and, of course, I cried again.
Music can be magical.
Thanks for the memories. 

hit the road...

Yesterday evening (I very rarely go to evening viewings, but it was the only way I could get to view this), I went along to the Watershed to see Panah Panahi’s film “Hit The Road”.
It focuses on a family’s uncomfortable road trip in a rented car through remote north-western Iran, heading towards the Turkey/Azerbaijan border. There are four family members (plus an ailing dog): the grumpy, lumbering, cigarette-smoking husband (played by the excellent Hasan Majuni) with a broken leg in plaster (but who the wife suspects is putting on an act – the cast has been ‘on’ some four months!); the mother (played wonderfully by Pantea Panahiha) sitting in the front passenger seat and making regular dry observations; the quiet, elder son (Amin Simiar) is at the wheel and seemingly in a world of his own; and finally the clowning, irrepressible 8-year-old son (Rayan Sarlak) – in many ways the ‘star’ of the film.
I found the ‘plot’ somewhat confusing at the start… the younger son was told his brother was leaving the country temporarily to get married, but it transpires that the real reason has more to do with him being smuggled out of the country - perhaps to avoid being conscripted into the army? (well, at least that’s what I’d decided by the end of the film).
Two of the film’s many highlights, for me, were scenes in which, first, the mother lip-syncs to an Iranian pop song on the radio and then, later, the younger son performs a similar, but in a deep bass voice, lip-sync ‘accompaniment’ which reflects both the family’s pain at the demise of the dog (sorry, *spoiler alert*!) and the uncertainty of what lies beyond for them. I know the lip-sync sounds a little ridiculous, but both scenes were beautiful and quite moving.   
It's a mesmerising film which, brilliantly and bizarrely, is able to convey humour, heartache, beauty, fear and defiance. It’s quite brilliant.
PS: The one downside for me was having to watch the film in the small Cinema 2 studio… it was a sell-out and, for me, all a little cramped and claustrophobic. 

bristol pilgrimage… again

If you’re ever on the beautiful island of Iona, the weekly pilgrimage walk around the island is an experience not to be missed.
During the course of my 8-week stay there as a volunteer with the Iona Community in 2012, I bought Jane Bentley+Neil Paynter’s really excellent book “Around A Thin Place” (an Iona pilgrimage guide) and, as well as using it when I was on Iona, I have subsequently used it as a resource for my own Bristol pilgrimage version on four previous occasions – but (I see from my previous blog posts) that the last time was back in 2017.
Yesterday, I decided to undertake a fifth ‘pilgrimage’ journey around Bristol… in part as a practical response(?) to my ongoing journey through what has become something of a ‘spiritual wilderness’.
This time, I divided my route into eight sections or stops… pausing for reflections taken from the book, together with my own deliberations. Each time I’ve done this, I’ve used a completely different set of locations but, unlike on my previous walks, the weather was disappointingly bleak (very light rain for virtually all of the walk) - duly illustrated by my poor-quality photographs – but nevertheless strangely refreshing.
As before (perhaps bizarrely), I related my stopping points with pilgrimage stops on Iona:
St Martin’s Cross/setting out on the road was the Cathedral; The Crossroads was the area around Broken Dock (adjacent footpaths/roads/ferries/river); St Columba’s Bay was the stretch of the River Avon beyond the Plimsoll Swingbridge; the Marble Quarry was Leigh Woods/Rownham Hill Wood; Dun I/High Point was the Clifton Suspension Bridge; The Machair was Clifton Village; Hermit’s Cell was Bird Cage Walk; and St Oran’s Chapel/Reilig Odhrain was Brandon Hill.
I really enjoyed making my pilgrimage walk again – and especially as it was the first since we moved from Southville (and therefore took on a somewhat different character). I was also reminded how much I’ve valued the wise, thought-provoking reflections contained in the ‘Thin Place’ book. It also reminded me that I perhaps need to start re-using daily readings and meditations from the Iona Community again (I have several books on my shelves).
An enjoyable and fulfilling morning.
Photos: rather ‘watery’ photographs from my ‘pilgrimage’.

vested interests…

Every now and then, I read about/listen to/watch articles/podcasts/documentaries that, on the face of it, seem to have only tenuous connections but which, coming across them within a few days of each other, resonate and leave me ‘pondering’.
Here are three recent examples:
UK GOVERNMENT:
The Tory government continues to depress me (understatement). Mr Johnson’s recent ‘resignation’ shenanigans (with ministers and MPs being offered various ‘incentives’ in order to back him) followed by the farce of the leadership ‘contest’ – with similar inducements and tax-cutting promises (when, of course, I would advocate higher taxes in order to properly fund the NHS, mental health, education, environmental measures etc) – while, at the same time noting such incidental matters as ‘the Tories can do whatever they want because they’ve got a huge majority’ (and a rubbish electoral system); an ineffective Opposition Party; and rumours that Mr Johnson will use his departure to announce the ‘elevation’ of several dozen Tory-backing individuals to the House of Lords (in many cases, rewards for being ‘generous donors’ to the Tory Party). I could write at length on this matter but, of course, my voice doesn’t count.
It’s all about vested interests, power politics, lobbying and greed.
BIG OIL v THE WORLD (Documentary, BBC iPlayer, 2022):
Arguably, this is the most important, depressing story of our time – about what the fossil fuel industry knew about climate change more than FOUR DECADES ago. Scientists who worked for the biggest oil company in the world, Exxon, revealing the warnings they sounded in the 1970s and early 1980s about how fossil fuels would cause climate change – with potentially catastrophic effects. Drawing on thousands of newly discovered documents, the film goes on to chart in revelatory and forensic detail how the oil industry went on to mount a campaign to sow doubt about the science of climate change, the consequences of which we are living through today. And then, how the 2010s became another lost decade in the fight against climate change – as the move to natural gas delayed a transition to more renewable sources of energy – with ‘fracking’ (technique for extracting gas and oil from shale rock) being promoted by powerful corporations as a cleaner energy source, but subsequently realising natural gas (releasing large quantities of methane into the atmosphere) could be even worse for climate change than coal and oil. Meanwhile, in the UK, last week’s newspapers reported that Shell and Centrica had posted profits totalling £11bn as households struggle with bills… and that British Gas had reinstated dividends for its shareholders after operating profits of £1.3bn; and that Shell had reported a £10bn profit between April and June; and that BP reported its biggest quarterly profit for 14 years.
It’s all about vested interests… power politics, lobbying and greed.
ISABELLA TREE’S BOOK WILDING:
The modern farmer was supposed to rationalise, intensify, diversify… get rid of small fields and hedgerows in the interests of getting the best use out of massive prairie-style machines and industrial farming techniques in order to maximise profits. Well, this inspiring book describes an attempt to renew the ecosystem, after decades of intensive agriculture of some 1,400 hectares owned by Tree’s husband Charlie Burrell at Knepp in West Sussex. The project, which began in 2001, is perhaps unique in England, and the results have been spectacular. In what has become a glorious ‘mess’, the animals live out in the open all year round and give birth unassisted by humans. Formerly common plants – but also rare ones – have returned in profusion, together with insects, bats and other organisms. Scrubland, wetland and other habitats are gradually rewiring themselves as herbicides and pesticides disappear. The increase in the variety and abundance of birds has been particularly astonishing. At a time when we’re ‘hammering the environment’, it’s a compelling and hugely encouraging, hopeful account about restoring what we have lost.
It DOESN’T all have to be about vested interests… power politics, lobbying and greed.
 
Somehow, we need to introduce an urgent sense of hope and fairness into the way we run this country. Sadly, at the present time, it seems all about self-interest, powerful corporations and banks, lobbyists… and a government on the side of the privileged and the well-off and where disrespectful/dishonest actions and attitudes go unpunished. Climate Change and Global Warming should be at the very HEART of our government’s agenda… but, at present, it pays only lip-service to an issue that threatens the very future of the planet.
Hamilton Nolan, writing in today’s ‘Guardian’, sums it up thus: “Capitalism is not designed to look several generations down the road. It is not designed to sacrifice for the greater good. It is designed to maximize profits. To pump every last barrel of oil on Earth, sell it, take the money and build a luxurious space ship to leave the planet that has been destroyed by burning all of that gas is a perfectly rational course of action according to the logic of capitalism. As long as there is a trillion dollars a year to be made, the fossil fuel industry will take the money. It is enough money to build a nice villa far, far away from the wars and droughts and floods and wildfires that fossil fuels are causing”.