Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane

I have long had mixed feelings about this author.  Some years ago I started to read one of his books and after only a few pages I found his comments about geese so far off the mark that I put the book aside.  On a much more positive note I have heard interviews with him that showed him to be a thoroughly nice person.  There is of course no inconsistency in these aspects of his persona.

My reason for reading this book was that it was selected for discussion in the Brampton Climate Change Reading Group.

The book discusses three rivers, one in South America, one in India and the other in Northern Canada.  The thesis in all three is that a river can effectively be killed.  The death of each results from chemical pollution, sewage effluent and the results of creating dams.  I learned a lot about the many chemical processes which hand in hand with the failure of governments to regulate have created such devastating pollution.

The prioritisation of wealth over environmental protection lies at the heart of the problem.  The degree to which indigenous peoples have been the main losers is astounding.  While Western Societies blame the less developed nations for environmental damage, it comes as a shock to learn that Canada has behaved equally badly in this.

The tenor of the narrative focuses very much on the concept of giving a river a life in a spiritual sense.  The author agrees to and seems to embrace the instructions given to him in advance of his canoe trip down the Canadian river, that he offers gifts to the river and communicates with the river in a spiritual, not to say cranky way.  This might well be dismissed by people of a scientific or rational thinking mind.  Would it not be more powerful to governments to consider the good sense of applying environmental controls for the wider benefits that they would bring.  Self interest in this respect might be a very powerful motivator.

Jacksons, Monk & Rowe and the Brodsky Quartet the formative years by Jacqueline Thomas

I have known the music of this string quartet over many years but I have recently had a resurgence of interest while playing some of their CDs involving collaborations with artists such as Elvis Costello.

  A search for any live performances showed that one at nearby Cockermouth had just taken place but remarkably there was one shortly to take place at Gatehouse of Fleet, an opportunity not to be missed.  Searches for live performances particularly of world renowned musicians usually come up with far flung venues so the chance to hear the Brodskys next week relatively nearby was too good to miss. 

This prompted me to delve a little further and I found Jacqueline Thomas's memoir.  This is a wonderful read and a tale of hugh dedication to ther quartet that she formed at the age of ten.  It comes across as touchingly honest and Jacqueline frequently writes of cringing at the youthful arrogance of her younger self.  Frequent setbacks at competitions did little to blunt the enthusiasm of the young players who all lived within easy walking distance of each other in Linthorpe.  It describes some of the music at a level of detail that could have been opaque to those not deeply steeped if string playing and music of this genre but it never is.

An added ingredient of interest for me is that the Thomas family lived in the Linthorpe suburb of Middlesbrough very close to my childhood home and I remember her older siblings.  She attended the same primary school as I did and mentions three teachers there who taught me.

Living the rarified life of a classical string player at so young an age in the often rough environment of Middlesbrough gave Jacqueline challenges beyong those that I also faced but to much lesser a degree.  It was however a different place half a century ago when the industries of Dorman Long and two important ICI chemical works provided mass employment and an influx of scientists and high level managers to raise the intellectual stakes of the region.

This is a wonderful and heartwarming read and I can't wait to hear them play next week !

 

Didn't you used to be Chris Mullin - Diaries 2010 - 2022

 This is a delightful and insightful read !

This came as no surprise to me as I read some of his earlier diaries some years ago.  These diaries were just as interesting a read as the earlier ones, although in a rather different way.  The earlier diaries spanned a time when Chris Mullin was a Labout MP for Sunderland and a good deal of the content related to the period of Tony Blair's leadership.  He refers to Blair as 'The Man' which is a nice device and reflects something of his opinion of Blair.  This involves quite a mix of feelings from admiration of Blair's rhetorical skills to seeing the more fickle side of him.  These earlier diaries gave a close reflection of those in power at the time which I found gave me a considered view of events and of the main political players of that time who featured in contemporaneous news reports that I remember.  In effect an historical retrospective.

This volume of diaries relates to the time when Chris Mullin was no longer an MP but had acquired considerable renown and financial reward for his various books and screen adaptations.  So while they lack the close reflection on the current politicians they deal with more recent events and give a wider perspective of his life as a Booker Prize judge, National Parks Authority Committee member and member of his local and historical community.  

There is a good del of humour in the diaries.  One comment that amused me was his reflection of times when his wife travelled abroad which left him free to do whatever he liked without having to account for his actions.  Although the diaries received an edit, this was clearly of a very light touch and his reactions and feelings remain true to the time.  

One rather troubling event is where West Midlands Police bring legal action against him for refusing to reveal the source of some evidence that was used in the freeing of the wrongfully imprisoned Birmingham Six.  His journalistic preservation of confidential source material prevailed and he was aquitted, this does not make me view the police in a better light.

He is a person for whom I have great admiration.  As a Remainer he was MP fro a constituency which voted strongly for Brexit.  He represented a community which had a prevailing hatred of foreigners despite many of them never having met one - they formed their views from the Right Wing Tabloid press.

Betrayal - The Murder of Robert Nairac GC by Alistair Kerr

 

This represents quite a departure from my usual range of reading and came about because it was lent to me by a friend from whom it came with a glowing recommendation.

The loan was inspired by my having read a biography of Paddy Mayne, the SAS war hero which I had lent to my friend.  I consequently had something of a degree of interest in military history.

I found this book completely fascinating.  It is incredibly well researched and running to over 400 pages it includes much peripheral context.  From it I gleaned insight into the history and individual style of the Oxford Colleges and how it was for people hoping to gain entrance to these in the late 1960s which was the same time that I was engaging in University entrance.  The author is very much of the opinion that standards have fallen since those times and that the liberalisation that has taken place over that half century is very much a bad thing.  I have some sympathy with his views on standards but mine relate more to scientific rigour rather than the cultural democritisation that he rails against.  His views differ from mine in other spheres but more on that later.

When one has lived through a certain time and listened to media reports in a very immediate way it can be difficult to form a properly informed view of events.  It has been very educatioal to read of the events of 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland in a retrospective fashion.  It was clearly an incredibly complex picture of the interaction of the British Army, the SAS, and the RUC, all of which should have had a common purpose but which had different priorities and restraints.  For example the Army personel were there for a time limited period whereas the RUC were operating there centrally to their lives - there was no exit plan for them.  Similarly the PIRA and OIRA operated to different standards and with different levels of violence and restraint.

Political angles are explored and the author is clearly very right wing and has got nothing good to say about labour poloitcians:  Harold Wilson is treated in a particularly excoriating way.  The Political Left are roundly condemned.

The analysis of events is forensic and fair.  Much has been written about the events of the murder and much is incorrect.  Some of this stems from some of the protagonists' attempts at damage limitation and avoidance of reputational damage.  The author navigates his way through all this in a fascinatingly robust fashion and left me, as the reader feeling that the truth as far as it could be ascertained had been arrived it.

It is a thoroughly good read that left me feeling unlikely to be very satisfied with pretty much anything that I might read next.

How they Broke Britain by James O'Brien

 

When I came across this book all those months ago in Gairloch I was very much in two minds as to whether I wanted to read more about the woes that Britain is suffering and who was responsible.  It has taken a while for it to get to the top of my reading list.

The book starts with chapters on the right wing press from Murdoch to Andrew Neil and then gets onto politicians.  The early chapters I found rather dull and overly complex with multiple characters that I was not particularly familiar with.  The writing seemed to jump about leaving me wondering just who was being discussed at the time on many ocasions.  I was unimpressed and uninspired and felt a distinct sense that I was getting little from the book.

As the chapters turned to political figures with Farage being the first to feature it did'nt draw my attention much more.  Then as David Cameron entered the narrative I suddenly felt a sense of engagement - it became fascinating.  I wonder to what degree this was related to my own areas of interest or did the author suddenly become enlivened.

James writes about Cameron's background, the Bullingdon Club and the general sense of entitlement that stems from the elitist education that he and others of his ilk went through.  The content here was not particularly new to me but the analysis was fresh and engaging.

The next chapter dealing with Jeremy Corbyn had me even more enlightened.  It still puzzles me why so many people whom I regard as being well informed and critically thinking were so impressed by Corbyn.  It was interesting to read how figures such as Gordon Brown were concerned about his ascendency.  The background to Corbyn's association with jihadists gave me perspective on the concerns that many expressed about his sense of judgement.  I also learned that his team went to great lengths to keep him away from serious political interviewers for fear that the flaws in his policies might be exposed.

The remaining chapters on Johnson and Truss simply reinforced the views that I already had on these two.  His analysis of Johnson is particularly excoriating and frames him as being entirely driven by self interest.

It was after all a worthwhile read while not being an exceptional one. 

If Russia Wins A Scenario by Carlo Masala

Carlo Masala is Professor of International Politics at Bundeswehr University Munich.  He has an impressive CV with roles in Nato Defence College and Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies.  This book is no amateur scare story.

Recent history has shown that predicting geopolitical events is a sphere into which the wise would be well advised not to venture.  This however is a predicted scenario that is worthy of attention.  The author takes us through a series of future events that follow Putin's predicted victory over Ukraine.  These are the very events that all those who have lent support to Ukraine have feared.  The Coalition of the Willing - those thirtyone countries who pledged support for Ukraine - seemed to be a committed body at its inception.

The book describes how largely domestic events overtake the earlier resolve that members of the Coalition held.  How much does the Russian incursion into a small Estonian town matter ?  What are the risks of escalation into WW3 if Russia is confronted ?  Will this seemingly insignificant incursion be the end ?  How much have the lessons from Hitler's pathway been learned ?  

Russia's words represent a striking mismatch with its actions.  Worryingly the mismatch of the words of the West with its deeds strike a chilling chord.

 

The Meaning of Geese by Nick Acheson

 I started reading this book at the end of last winter just as the wintering geese on the Solway were departing for their breeding grounds.  I was so enthralled by the content and so much liked the direct but nevertheless lyrical writing style that I temporarily shelved it.  This was because I wanted to be immersed in my local north Cumbrian wintering flocks of geese while reading it.  The past few weeks have seen vast flocks of Barnacle Geese return to the Solway from their Svalbard breeding grounds and returning Pink-footed Geese from where they breed in Iceland.  The scene was now set for me to finish the book.

This book is generally to be found under the 'Nature Writing' section in bookshops.  This category is one with which I have some difficulty.  I would have a preference for placing it somewhere that reflects its degree of specialisation and authority.  This is no run of the mill 'Nature book'.  It is interesting and probably significant that while Nick has written columns in some prestigious publications this is actually his first book.

The form that the book takes is by progressing through the winter starting in September with the earliest arrivals of geese and concludes at the end of April when most have departed.  It recounts Nick's journeys on an old red bicycle around the lanes of north Norfolk as he searches for flocks of geese.  He is a native of that part of Norfolk and keeps in contact with James McCallum that wonderful water colourist whose speciality is geese and also with a few other knowledgeable observers and ringers of geese.

The narrative while being based on Nick's travels around his local area also brings in a wealth of information related to when the different species of geese arrive and depart and also where their core breeding areas are located.  The whole text comes across as being completely honest; it is sprinkled with details that give atmosphere while it never seems forced or includes unnecessary embelishment.

This is undoubledly one of the most enjoyable, inspiring and informative accounts that I have read.  I would have little hesitation in awarding it my wildlife related book of the year.

The Kremlin's Noose by Amy Knight

 I have long had a fascination with Russia from reading Sholokhov novels in the late 1960s to several visits to Russia in the 1990s including sailing out of Vladivostok on a fishing boat into Peter The Great Bay and passing by the Russian fleet in complete openness.  How times have changed.

This book was a delight !  The author is an authority on Russian politics with a PhD in the subject from the LSE where she later taught and followed that by a couple of decades at the US Library of Congress as a specialist in Russian and Soviet affairs.  The writing is good and clear and marred by the only occasional 'gotten'.

The book traces Putin's career from his rather less than prestigious days as a KGB Colonel through to his apparently reluctant appointment as Russia's President under Yeltsin's direction up to the present time.  It is not just about Putin however.  It gives us insights into the complex manoeuvrings of Russian politics with a dizzying array of players who rise and fall with an intensity that makes British politics seem incredibly civilised in comparison.  The falls are in a different league from those that we see within western politics - exiles, killings and apparent suicides predominate and the advice not to drink the tea is less of a cliche than a stark reality.

It was interesting to be reminded that Yeltsin was a real advocate for democracy and that Russia was heading in a very good direction in those days when we felt that the world offered real optimism.  Even Putin's early days as President involved constructive meetings with western leaders.  How did it all go so wrong ?  The idea that Russians have a slave mentality was suggested as being a contributory factor and that brings to mind the frustration shown by the protagonist in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.

I was puzzled by the reference to the US Congress adopting the Magnitski Act by a surpisingly reluctant Obama.  This act had been promoted by Bill Browder who writes persuasively of its value - so why the reluctance ?  Perhaps I have much to learn !

Despite the clearly negative tale that is told of the Russian decline into authoritarianism this was nevertheless a very uplifting read that showed the command and understanding that the author brought to the subject and the way that she conveyed it so eloquently.

In Search of One Last Song by Parrick Galbraith

This title appealed to me when I came across it in the Gairloch Bookstore because it had 'disappearing birds and the people trying to save them' on the front cover.  That was to a large extent because of my fifteen year involvement with monitoring and protecting Hen Harriers in Cumbria.  I wanted to read about the ways that other pople were trying to give protection to threatened species of birds.

Beyond that I had looked in the index and found the names of people whom I'd either met or heard about.  This was going to be interesting !

On embarking on the text I found the style quite quirky, it certainly wasn't mundane.  There was a lot of incidental detail designed no doubt to set the scene and make the reader feel part of the conversations  taking place.  Some of these became rather waring and  repetitious - how many times did I want to hear of the sweat trickling down an assorted selection of arms, brows and more.  The people he had conversations with all seemed to have a propensity for 'sucking air between ther teeth' - again not something that I felt I needed to know about.  All in all the writer seemed to want to add colour to the narrative - but for me that was all a bit too forced and just too much.

The writer travels Britain and meets quite an array of rather marginalised characters.  There was little doubt that these people shared concerns about disappearing species, but were they really trying to save them in a purposeful way - it didn't seem like it.

There was nevertheless some interesting information of a historical nature sprinkled among the many unusual interactions but these took rather a lot of finding and many got buried under much seemingly irreleant detail.  On a few occasions I was just getting interested in his conversation with a particular character in some remote location when suddenly the narrative had jumped to somewhere completely different and new characters and locations were introduced in a confusing way without sufficient context.

Ultimately if you like flights of fancy with endless questionable detail then this is a book for you.  If on the other hand you want to learn about some of the many people who are working hard to save species through hard work on the ground or habitat requirement research then you should probably look elsewhere.

 

Not another one - podcast

 

This represents an unusual departure form the usual content of this blog in not being a book.  It does satisfy the disclaimer 'Mostly' and certainly conforms to the stated content in that it is a political podcast.

I find politics a difficult sphere to understand and one in which it is difficulkt to get meaningful perspectives.  I don't find the BBC particularly insightful although I did enjoy Politics Live for a time when Jo Coburn was in the chair.  The printed press and online political platforms are generally highly partisan.

I had quite a long period of enthusiasm for the podcast Oh God What Now particularly when Ian Dunt, Dorian Lynskey, Alex Andreou and Ros Taylor where regular panelists.  This podcast arose from the former Remainiacs.  Then times changed and the cast became less to my liking.  Beyond that I grew aware of the 'echo chamber' element of this along with so many other platforms.  A wider perspective on the world of politics seemed an important thing to look for.

'Not another one' references Brenda from Bristol in her response to the news of another impending election.  This is not particularly pertinent but it does give a flavour of the podcast which includes a nice thread of humour.  The main tenet is to provide a cross section of political thought and for the discussions among the team members to be completely respectful.

The four protagonists shown in the image are, from left to right -

Tim Montgomerie.  A former Tory and indeed the creator of the website ConservativeHome.  He has written for most of the major broadsheets and has had advisor roles for the Tory party.  He has recently Joined Reform.

Miranda Green.  Writes for the FT and had former politcal roles within the LibDem party.  She brings a lively ingredient to the podcast.

Steve Richards.  A well known political journalist with a history with the BBC, Guardian, Independent and the New Statesman.  He runs a very good podcast 'Rock and Roll Politics'.

Iain Martin.  Has links with the Times and Telegraph.  He also brings a wine buff element and advocates Co-op wine choices.

So here we have two shades of the right in Tim Montgomerie and Iain Martin and two shades of the left in Steve Richards and Miranda Green.

I find the episodes refreshingly lively and they give a broad political perspective.  It is stimulating to hear political views that don't align with my own interrogated and all this in very good humour.

The Naked Neanderthal by Ludovic Slimak

Following reading Alice Roberts' trilogy and having recently delved into contemporary genomics I was excited to learn more about this interesting hominid.

I often find that the transition between one writing style and another is one that takes a little time to adjust to.  Perhaps it was the case that with the recent books that I've read having been particularly well written I was expecting something similar.  From the very start I found the writing style rather opaque - I would often reread a sentence in search of meaning.  As the book is translated from the Russian this perhaps contributed to these difficulties.  On the other hand a translation can provide an opportunity rather than being a burden.

Beyond the style of the writing I found the content was rambly.  I kept going in the hope of learning something tangible while being taken off at various tangents.  The author is fond of referring to Ancient Greek thoughts which I found particularly irrelevant as the Ancient Greeks knew nothing of the Neanderthals.

In terms of genetic information this turned out to be scant.  I was frustrated to learn that modern humans contain some Neanderthal genes whereas no human genes have been located within the Neanderthal genome; but what are the implications in this ?

On the more positive side I did learn that Neanderthals inhabited Europe before Homo sapiens

arrived at which point Neanderthals rather mysteriously became extinct.  There is apparently no real explanation for this.

 

The Screaming Sky by Carles Foster

 

I noticed this book while browsing the tables in the Hillbillies Bookstore in Gairloch.  The author's name struck a cord and I remember reading 'Being a Beast' some years ago on the recommendation of a friend.  That was an extraordinary read about how he, by way of experiment lived as a badger.  I opened the book, read a few lines and went to the paying desk.

The writing was the main draw.  I just love and revel in good writing: for me it is reward enough in itself.  By the same token I have given up on books that are seemingly written without any inspiration of style; this may be quite apart from the interest in the content.

The author confesses to being obsessed with Swifts.  He travels the world at the drop of a hat to sit and watch Swifts in far flung places from southern Europe through central Africa to the far south of that continent.  I was not expecting to learn about Swifts but I did.  And I learned much about this incredible species in a very easy and enjoyable way.  Charles feeds the reader information about Swifts that he has gleaned through extensive reading of scientific papers but does so through the rich and enthralling narrative.

We learn a lot about the author's psyche and he comes across as a very emotional character with many vulnerabilities.  He clearly has a very keen intelligence and also has great self-awareness.  He walks a very fine line while speculating on what the birds may be feeling while managing to avoid the trap of anthropomorphism.  The text is amusing while the humour is light.

Current scientific tools such as geolocators and satellite trackers have given us a wealth of new and often unexpected information about many wild creatures in recent decades.  Despite this there is still much that is not understood when it comes to enigmatic and unusual species like the Swift.  Charles is clearly fascinated by these gaps in our knowledge and understanding and highlights these alongside the recent facts and hypotheses that have emerged.

These days I rarely gravitate towards the Nature Writing section in bookshops.  There's just something about the idea of reading about nature in that rather wooly way that I want to withdraw from;  rather I want to actually experienc nature in a very direct way.  It sometimes feels as if writers have a Nature Writing mission.  It did not feel this way with this book; I didn't feel as if I was being told about Nature: I felt as if the author was writing about his experiences and feelings - not so much for my benefit but more just to express his own enthusiasm, joy and ultimately his obsession.

This is a very special book written in a very special way about an even more special species of bird that has captured the imaginations of many of us.

Hiking with Nietzsche by John Kaag

This is one of the books that I picked up at the Hillbillies Bookstore in Gairloch.  I have to admit that I was so fascinated by the title that it has jumped the queue in my reading list.

The author is an academic philosopher and has mde two journeys in the Alps that retraced Nietzsche's footsteps.  One journey was as a young man and the other in middle age having become a parent.  At the onset of reading this I had only a very vague notion of Nietzsche's ideas.  I knew that the Nazis took him as a model for their malign operation. But the truth is that this was a very selective hijacking of his ideas and one that was amplified by Nietzsche's sisiter's wanting to further her nationalistic ideals.  She dealt with his affairs following his death so that she was able to manipulate his philosophical ideas for her own ends.  The truth is that he was neither nationalistic nor was he anti semitic.

I enjoyed the read which takes the reader on the author's Alpine walks while weaving in Nietzsche's thoughts and fragments of his writing.  John clearly empathises with Nietzsche's psyche and found the journeys punctuated with reading Nietzsche's books helpful in 'becoming who you are'.  I did not share that empathy and interestingly neither did John's wife whose philosophical leaning is toward Kant who was very much rejected by Nietzsche.

I was interested to get further perspective on Nietzsche so I reread Bertrand Russels section on him in 'History of Western Philosophy'.  This was useful and interesting too that Russell clearly had no affinity for Nietzsche.  I looked also at Nigel Warburton's chapter on Nietzsche in his 'A Little History of Philosophy' and at the end of this Nietzschean immersion I think I have some understanding of this brilliant but very trouled character.