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caropullen's review
5.0
This book is about ghosts, grief, britishness, birdwatching, weather, film, the healing power of stories. It’s about the movement you catch out of the corner of your eye. It’s about pilgrimage. It’s about nostalgia and melancholy. I loved it.
tomby's review
emotional
funny
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Really interesting and moving, came away with a long list of books and films to watch
wunkymatts's review
5.0
I think I would very much like to have a cup of tea and a chat with Edward Parnell. He seems like a very clever and interesting man but never arrogant or condescending about his encyclopaedic knowledge.
Reading this book I was transported to the world of dark, comfortable academics inhabited by MR James and the like (alas, they are overwhelmingly male). A lovely, cosy fantasy of a life I could see myself in.
I was also struck by the relationship Parnell has with the landscapes he explores. He genuine love for his flat fenland soul home. I can relate to this. There are stretches of land and country that are part of my heart as well. I just don't think I could ever write about them as well as he has.
But the most haunting parts of the book are his reflections on his own ghosts. The true ghosts that follow us around. They haunt us, and we are grateful for that, because if they did not haunt us all they were, all they did, all they were to us, would be gone.
Reading this book I was transported to the world of dark, comfortable academics inhabited by MR James and the like (alas, they are overwhelmingly male). A lovely, cosy fantasy of a life I could see myself in.
I was also struck by the relationship Parnell has with the landscapes he explores. He genuine love for his flat fenland soul home. I can relate to this. There are stretches of land and country that are part of my heart as well. I just don't think I could ever write about them as well as he has.
But the most haunting parts of the book are his reflections on his own ghosts. The true ghosts that follow us around. They haunt us, and we are grateful for that, because if they did not haunt us all they were, all they did, all they were to us, would be gone.
annabelws23's review
3.0
What to say about this book? I’ve given it 3 *s although that feels generous based on my personal experience. Probably it is a 21/2* book for me. I am left to wonder why.
This should have been absolutely my type of book, a ramble around the haunting places and literature of Britain, but of psycho-geography, bit of memoir, bit literary, bit folkloric, bit filmic. Yet, I could not get into this book for as much as I perserved to the end.
Perhaps it was the utter lack of cohesion to the book - Parnell changes train of thought so rapidly I had to train myself to go with his own flow. There did not seem to be a discernible cohesion to the order of places or books he chose to dwell upon . We jumped from Scotland to Dorset to Norfolk. This feels like a stylistic choice, like the flitting and fleeting aspects of memory, I just did not get on with it.
All this being said, the book was its most compelling in moments of autobiography. Stripped back to the story of the losses Parnell has faced, the book was heart-rendering, and for this I can’t give it 2*. There were moments that I did enjoy reading this.
I think in essence this book just wasn’t for me, as much as I wanted it to be. I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from reading it themselves.
This should have been absolutely my type of book, a ramble around the haunting places and literature of Britain, but of psycho-geography, bit of memoir, bit literary, bit folkloric, bit filmic. Yet, I could not get into this book for as much as I perserved to the end.
Perhaps it was the utter lack of cohesion to the book - Parnell changes train of thought so rapidly I had to train myself to go with his own flow. There did not seem to be a discernible cohesion to the order of places or books he chose to dwell upon . We jumped from Scotland to Dorset to Norfolk. This feels like a stylistic choice, like the flitting and fleeting aspects of memory, I just did not get on with it.
All this being said, the book was its most compelling in moments of autobiography. Stripped back to the story of the losses Parnell has faced, the book was heart-rendering, and for this I can’t give it 2*. There were moments that I did enjoy reading this.
I think in essence this book just wasn’t for me, as much as I wanted it to be. I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from reading it themselves.
dexychik's review
5.0
A strange mix of grief, birds, ghosts and landscape. But the real horror is not in the stories described, but in the tiny snippets of the author's personal trauma. Lots of fen chat, fellow fendwellers.
lafee's review
4.0
This is such an interesting and heartfelt book, written in the now-familiar format that seems to have become very popular in the last couple of years: a mix of grief memoir, nature writing, and travel writing, with some literary analysis thrown it. Parnell leads us through the ancient and haunted British landscape, excavating memories of his family along the way, and exploring its influence on horror film and the classic ghost story. The writing is beautiful and moving, though never mawkish, and will definitely be picking up some W.G. Sebald and Algernon Blackwood on Parnell's recommendation.