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odettebrethouwer's review against another edition
5.0
Voor iedereen die mij gesproken heeft terwijl ik dit boek las zal het zijn 'Oh, ja, natuurlijk geeft ze dit 5*!' Ik ben zo enorm enthousiast over dit boek!
De schrijver is gefascineerd door de wind, en gaat die achterna jagen. Leuk en uniek concept. Het reisverslag is fijn om te lezen als je van de ervaring van ongerepte natuur houdt - ook vanaf je bank. Ik ervaar echt de tochten die de auteur maakt.
Door de omgeving en de schrijfstijl zeg ik hierom: voor liefhebbers van Paolo Cognetti's De acht bergen (en ik HOU van dat boek).
Maar Nick Hunt doorspekt zijn reisverslag met historie, mythes, cultuur, volkswijsheden, mensenkennis, meteorologie.. Er is haast geen onderwerp dat niet aan bod komt in dit boek - maar het vloeit allemaal zo logisch en interessant in elkaar over!
Dit is echt een geweldig boek. Of je nou wel of niet van fictie dan wel non-fictie houdt, of je de genoemde onderwerpen al interessant vind of als je er net als ik nooit een heel boek over op zou pakken, dit boek is een aanrader!
De schrijver is gefascineerd door de wind, en gaat die achterna jagen. Leuk en uniek concept. Het reisverslag is fijn om te lezen als je van de ervaring van ongerepte natuur houdt - ook vanaf je bank. Ik ervaar echt de tochten die de auteur maakt.
Door de omgeving en de schrijfstijl zeg ik hierom: voor liefhebbers van Paolo Cognetti's De acht bergen (en ik HOU van dat boek).
Maar Nick Hunt doorspekt zijn reisverslag met historie, mythes, cultuur, volkswijsheden, mensenkennis, meteorologie.. Er is haast geen onderwerp dat niet aan bod komt in dit boek - maar het vloeit allemaal zo logisch en interessant in elkaar over!
Dit is echt een geweldig boek. Of je nou wel of niet van fictie dan wel non-fictie houdt, of je de genoemde onderwerpen al interessant vind of als je er net als ik nooit een heel boek over op zou pakken, dit boek is een aanrader!
carolyngrace's review against another edition
4.0
3.5/5
This is a book written for people who willingly read a book about the weather. If you are questioning whether you are one of these people, you probably are not. You should pick another book.
This is a travel book about the wind. It is a quiet, patient subject and the writing style follows suit. It is a book you need to spend time with, like a conversation. I read this as a bookclub book and forced my way through part of it and it was a little unpleasant to read under pressure.
This is a book written for people who willingly read a book about the weather. If you are questioning whether you are one of these people, you probably are not. You should pick another book.
This is a travel book about the wind. It is a quiet, patient subject and the writing style follows suit. It is a book you need to spend time with, like a conversation. I read this as a bookclub book and forced my way through part of it and it was a little unpleasant to read under pressure.
halfmanhalfbook's review against another edition
4.0
Living on the south coast we have got used to the wind now. It blows across the Atlantic, up the channel and can vary from a pleasant breeze to a howling gale. Whilst it is a constant feature of life in Dorset, there are a lot of winds around the world that are such a part of the landscape that they have gained a certain amount of notoriety and their own name. Most have heard of the Mistral, the wind that scours the French Provencal landscape as it sweeps down to the Mediterranean, but around Europe that have evocative names such as Sirocco, the Levanter and the Meltemi.
These extremely strong winds, in some cases reaching 200mph, that are caused by a unique combination of natural phenomena; the makeup of the landscape allows a build-up of atmospheric pressure in the high regions that at certain points break free and sweep across a landscape causing damage to property, trees affecting the local population and playing a fundamental part of the myths and legends that make up the culture.
We even have our own named wind that blows across the Pennines called the Helm and it is here that Nick Hunt begins his walks across the European landscapes seeking these winds. Local give him pointers as to where to walk and the atmospheric details to look for so he can experience it for himself. Next is the Bora; this is a wind that blows from Trieste across Slovenia and down the Croatian coast. He climbs the Alps in search of the Fohen, a wind that can blow north and south through the Alps. His final wind is the famous Mistral, walking towards the coast with the wind behind him along an ancient pilgrimage path.
I really liked this original and interesting book from Nick Hunt, like his first book Walking the Woods and the Water he has a refreshing way of writing about the places he is walking through and the people he encounters on his way. The writing is interesting and he has managed to successfully mix the historical with the metrological whilst still maintaining his self-depreciating humour. It is another really good book from Nick, but if there was one tiny flaw, I would have liked to have heard about the other winds shown on the map at the beginning. I am hoping that is for another book.
These extremely strong winds, in some cases reaching 200mph, that are caused by a unique combination of natural phenomena; the makeup of the landscape allows a build-up of atmospheric pressure in the high regions that at certain points break free and sweep across a landscape causing damage to property, trees affecting the local population and playing a fundamental part of the myths and legends that make up the culture.
We even have our own named wind that blows across the Pennines called the Helm and it is here that Nick Hunt begins his walks across the European landscapes seeking these winds. Local give him pointers as to where to walk and the atmospheric details to look for so he can experience it for himself. Next is the Bora; this is a wind that blows from Trieste across Slovenia and down the Croatian coast. He climbs the Alps in search of the Fohen, a wind that can blow north and south through the Alps. His final wind is the famous Mistral, walking towards the coast with the wind behind him along an ancient pilgrimage path.
I really liked this original and interesting book from Nick Hunt, like his first book Walking the Woods and the Water he has a refreshing way of writing about the places he is walking through and the people he encounters on his way. The writing is interesting and he has managed to successfully mix the historical with the metrological whilst still maintaining his self-depreciating humour. It is another really good book from Nick, but if there was one tiny flaw, I would have liked to have heard about the other winds shown on the map at the beginning. I am hoping that is for another book.
balancinghistorybooks's review
4.0
Weather fascinates me, and therefore when I spotted Nick Hunt's Where the Wild Winds Are: Walking Europe's Winds from the Pennines to Provence in Fopp, I did not hesitate before picking up a copy. This non-fiction work was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Awards in 2018, and chosen as a book of the year by The Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, and The Spectator respectively. Amy Liptrot observes that the book is 'packed with wonder', and Jan Morris concurs, writing that it is 'full to the brim with learning, entertainment, description, scientific fact and conjectural fiction. It is travel writing in excess.'
In Where the Wild Winds Are, Hunt sets out to follow four of Europe's prevalent named winds. He begins in Cumbria with the Helm, the only named wind in Britain, before travelling to Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy to find the Bora which blows through all three countries, causing havoc for residents. Hunt then searches for the 'snow-eating' Foehn in Switzerland's alpine valleys, and the Mistral in the South of France, which 'animated and tormented Vincent Van Gogh.' Soon, Hunt 'finds himself borne along by the very forces he is pursuing, through rain, blizzards, howling gales, and back through time itself, for where the wild winds are, there are also myths and legends, history and hearsay, sacrifice and superstition...'.
In his prologue, which is entitled 'Blown Away', Hunt reflects on his experience of the Great Storm which hit Britain in 1987. Just a child at the time, he remembers how he was almost swept away by a gust of wind. At this point, his obsession with one of our most unpredictable types of weather began. Although he goes on to say that he did not take up a career in meteorology, or anything of the sort, what he did become 'was someone with an urge to travel, and especially to travel by walking, which allows you to follow paths not dictated by road or rail, paths not marked on any map, or to follow no path at all; to wander and to wonder as freely as your feet can take you. But every journey has a logic, even if it's an invisible one. All travelling, I came to understand, is an act of following something: whether a coastline, an ancient migration, a trade route, a border or someone else's footsteps.'
Hunt then recollects the moment at which he came across a map of Europe's winds, which linked regions in a way he had not previously considered. He writes: 'The fact that these invisible powers had names, rather than simply compass directions that described where they were from, gave them a sense of majesty, even of personality. They sounded like characters I could meet. These swooping, plunging arrows suggested routes I might follow, trails that had not been walked before. As soon as I saw that map I knew: I would follow the winds.' Thus, his quest to follow four winds - sometimes successfully, and sometimes not so - ensued.
Hunt chose to locate four winds as 'a nod to the proverbial four winds and the four points of the compass.' The book has consequently been split into four corresponding sections, each of which contains a map of his route. He also lets us, the readers, know about the daunting elements of the task which he set himself: 'It was clear that to follow the wind meant following uncertainty, allowing myself to be carried along by the unknown and the informed, the guessed-at and the half-imagined. Chasing the invisible was in many ways a quixotic quest, which appealed to my romantic side...'.
Hunt's writing oscillates between matter-of-fact and descriptive. When in Croatia, he writes, for instance: 'After climbing for an hour I reached a layer of dense cloud, which brought about the sensation of entering a different realm. I waded upward through submarine light, condensation slapping on the wet forest floor like rain, with the muscular trunks of beech trees looming through saturated air. Deciduous trees gave way to pines. Here and there blobs of snow lay like stranded jellyfish.' Of one of the winds which he does locate, he comments: 'It was in my ears, but it wasn't blowing; nor was it moaning, whistling, howling, or any of the other words usually used to capture wind. It was less a sound than a sensation, a nameless energetic thing that erased the line between hearing and feeling; for the first time in my life, I understood sound as a physical force. It was in my lungs, under my skin.'
Before picking up Where the Wild Winds Are, I had not encountered a travel book like it. Although it took a little while to really get into, I found myself fascinated by the mixture of elements which Hunt has woven in, from the history of forecasting the weather and the tools which the process entailed, to the quirky and eccentric characters whom he met along the way. There is a definite human perspective which has been considered, strengthened because Hunt is always keen to ask those he meets how they feel about the wind, and how it affects their day to day lives.
Where the Wild Winds Are is not as focused upon the weather as I expected it would be. Whilst Hunt's aim is to follow the four named winds, he does so in a manner which is largely unscientific. He discusses many things as he goes about his travels, from the fall of Yugoslavia and historic battles in Britain, to immigration, and its perceptions. The title, too, is sometimes a little misleading. Whilst Hunt does make some of his journeys on foot, he often relies on public transport to get him quickly from one place to another if rumours of the wind in question being in a particular location have reached him.
Where the Wild Winds Are is both an interesting read and a gentle one. I enjoyed Hunt's prose, which is often quite evocative. The author does go off on tangents from time to time, which I did not find overly compelling, but on the whole, the book is accessible and relatively easy to get into. I would recommend it if you enjoy travel writing and are looking for something a little different to sample.
In Where the Wild Winds Are, Hunt sets out to follow four of Europe's prevalent named winds. He begins in Cumbria with the Helm, the only named wind in Britain, before travelling to Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy to find the Bora which blows through all three countries, causing havoc for residents. Hunt then searches for the 'snow-eating' Foehn in Switzerland's alpine valleys, and the Mistral in the South of France, which 'animated and tormented Vincent Van Gogh.' Soon, Hunt 'finds himself borne along by the very forces he is pursuing, through rain, blizzards, howling gales, and back through time itself, for where the wild winds are, there are also myths and legends, history and hearsay, sacrifice and superstition...'.
In his prologue, which is entitled 'Blown Away', Hunt reflects on his experience of the Great Storm which hit Britain in 1987. Just a child at the time, he remembers how he was almost swept away by a gust of wind. At this point, his obsession with one of our most unpredictable types of weather began. Although he goes on to say that he did not take up a career in meteorology, or anything of the sort, what he did become 'was someone with an urge to travel, and especially to travel by walking, which allows you to follow paths not dictated by road or rail, paths not marked on any map, or to follow no path at all; to wander and to wonder as freely as your feet can take you. But every journey has a logic, even if it's an invisible one. All travelling, I came to understand, is an act of following something: whether a coastline, an ancient migration, a trade route, a border or someone else's footsteps.'
Hunt then recollects the moment at which he came across a map of Europe's winds, which linked regions in a way he had not previously considered. He writes: 'The fact that these invisible powers had names, rather than simply compass directions that described where they were from, gave them a sense of majesty, even of personality. They sounded like characters I could meet. These swooping, plunging arrows suggested routes I might follow, trails that had not been walked before. As soon as I saw that map I knew: I would follow the winds.' Thus, his quest to follow four winds - sometimes successfully, and sometimes not so - ensued.
Hunt chose to locate four winds as 'a nod to the proverbial four winds and the four points of the compass.' The book has consequently been split into four corresponding sections, each of which contains a map of his route. He also lets us, the readers, know about the daunting elements of the task which he set himself: 'It was clear that to follow the wind meant following uncertainty, allowing myself to be carried along by the unknown and the informed, the guessed-at and the half-imagined. Chasing the invisible was in many ways a quixotic quest, which appealed to my romantic side...'.
Hunt's writing oscillates between matter-of-fact and descriptive. When in Croatia, he writes, for instance: 'After climbing for an hour I reached a layer of dense cloud, which brought about the sensation of entering a different realm. I waded upward through submarine light, condensation slapping on the wet forest floor like rain, with the muscular trunks of beech trees looming through saturated air. Deciduous trees gave way to pines. Here and there blobs of snow lay like stranded jellyfish.' Of one of the winds which he does locate, he comments: 'It was in my ears, but it wasn't blowing; nor was it moaning, whistling, howling, or any of the other words usually used to capture wind. It was less a sound than a sensation, a nameless energetic thing that erased the line between hearing and feeling; for the first time in my life, I understood sound as a physical force. It was in my lungs, under my skin.'
Before picking up Where the Wild Winds Are, I had not encountered a travel book like it. Although it took a little while to really get into, I found myself fascinated by the mixture of elements which Hunt has woven in, from the history of forecasting the weather and the tools which the process entailed, to the quirky and eccentric characters whom he met along the way. There is a definite human perspective which has been considered, strengthened because Hunt is always keen to ask those he meets how they feel about the wind, and how it affects their day to day lives.
Where the Wild Winds Are is not as focused upon the weather as I expected it would be. Whilst Hunt's aim is to follow the four named winds, he does so in a manner which is largely unscientific. He discusses many things as he goes about his travels, from the fall of Yugoslavia and historic battles in Britain, to immigration, and its perceptions. The title, too, is sometimes a little misleading. Whilst Hunt does make some of his journeys on foot, he often relies on public transport to get him quickly from one place to another if rumours of the wind in question being in a particular location have reached him.
Where the Wild Winds Are is both an interesting read and a gentle one. I enjoyed Hunt's prose, which is often quite evocative. The author does go off on tangents from time to time, which I did not find overly compelling, but on the whole, the book is accessible and relatively easy to get into. I would recommend it if you enjoy travel writing and are looking for something a little different to sample.
halfmanhalfbook's review
4.0
Living on the south coast we have got used to the wind now. It blows across the Atlantic, up the channel and can vary from a pleasant breeze to a howling gale. Whilst it is a constant feature of life in Dorset, there are a lot of winds around the world that are such a part of the landscape that they have gained a certain amount of notoriety and their own name. Most have heard of the Mistral, the wind that scours the French Provencal landscape as it sweeps down to the Mediterranean, but around Europe that have evocative names such as Sirocco, the Levanter and the Meltemi.
These extremely strong winds, in some cases reaching 200mph, that are caused by a unique combination of natural phenomena; the makeup of the landscape allows a build-up of atmospheric pressure in the high regions that at certain points break free and sweep across a landscape causing damage to property, trees affecting the local population and playing a fundamental part of the myths and legends that make up the culture.
We even have our own named wind that blows across the Pennines called the Helm and it is here that Nick Hunt begins his walks across the European landscapes seeking these winds. Local give him pointers as to where to walk and the atmospheric details to look for so he can experience it for himself. Next is the Bora; this is a wind that blows from Trieste across Slovenia and down the Croatian coast. He climbs the Alps in search of the Fohen, a wind that can blow north and south through the Alps. His final wind is the famous Mistral, walking towards the coast with the wind behind him along an ancient pilgrimage path.
I really liked this original and interesting book from Nick Hunt, like his first book Walking the Woods and the Water he has a refreshing way of writing about the places he is walking through and the people he encounters on his way. The writing is interesting and he has managed to successfully mix the historical with the metrological whilst still maintaining his self-depreciating humour. It is another really good book from Nick, but if there was one tiny flaw, I would have liked to have heard about the other winds shown on the map at the beginning. I am hoping that is for another book.
These extremely strong winds, in some cases reaching 200mph, that are caused by a unique combination of natural phenomena; the makeup of the landscape allows a build-up of atmospheric pressure in the high regions that at certain points break free and sweep across a landscape causing damage to property, trees affecting the local population and playing a fundamental part of the myths and legends that make up the culture.
We even have our own named wind that blows across the Pennines called the Helm and it is here that Nick Hunt begins his walks across the European landscapes seeking these winds. Local give him pointers as to where to walk and the atmospheric details to look for so he can experience it for himself. Next is the Bora; this is a wind that blows from Trieste across Slovenia and down the Croatian coast. He climbs the Alps in search of the Fohen, a wind that can blow north and south through the Alps. His final wind is the famous Mistral, walking towards the coast with the wind behind him along an ancient pilgrimage path.
I really liked this original and interesting book from Nick Hunt, like his first book Walking the Woods and the Water he has a refreshing way of writing about the places he is walking through and the people he encounters on his way. The writing is interesting and he has managed to successfully mix the historical with the metrological whilst still maintaining his self-depreciating humour. It is another really good book from Nick, but if there was one tiny flaw, I would have liked to have heard about the other winds shown on the map at the beginning. I am hoping that is for another book.
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