Reading for the Holidays

Viburnum bodnantense in flower now

I like to give people ideas for something to read in the new year.  There is one book that I think people should not miss.

It is called Blue Machine, How the Ocean Shapes our World by Helen Czerski published by Transworld Publishers in 2003 and the paperback in 2004. I have only just begun reading it but from the very first page it  establishes the sea as the blue machine that organises our world. We have not bothered with it much at all so everything written here is fascinating and new. Dr. Helen Czerski is a wonderful teller (you can watch her on You Tube.) Because I have only just got the paperback I can only tell you about the Introduction and a quick look at the last chapter, Future. But I can tell you it is wonderfully written and promises surprises. I think everyone should read it immediately.  

The second is The Climate Change Book by Sally Morgan and Kim Stoddart, published by Green Rocket Books in 2019.  Sally has a demonstration organic garden and smallholding in Somerset, and has written various books on the environment, food, farming and gardening. Kim is a gardening journalist and editor of The Organic Way magazine. She runs climate change gardening courses through her social enterprise, Green Rocket, based in Hove. They have produced a very thorough and readable book on all aspects of climate change gardening, which is really worth reading through. I found it a little overdesigned so that some of the text was interrupted by pieces of specific information. This unnecessary and annoying. But in other respects the book is a treasure, full of important and useful information and easy to read. 

The final book is a little collection of writings on The Joy of Gardening, An Inspirational Anthology, by Eileen Campbell published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2007 so you might be able to find a second hand copy. 

And a reminder of last year's books: Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn; Underland by Robert Macfarlane; The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole and Otherlands by Thomas Halliday.