Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately, I do not have the capability to read protected pdf format. Thank you.

With the lockdown, I realized that I don't need the busy life of a city. All I need is a huge park where I can be with my thoughts. This book, with its breathtaking photographs, made me happy and showed me that I am not alone. Lovely work!

Earlier this year a friend made a photo book and sent it to those to whom she feels close. Spring was depicted therein and offered a verdant reminder that nature and life were going on during the pandemic. As soon as my local botanical garden allowed visits, I began going there and have taken so many photos as the seasons have evolved. Netty Cracknell also took photos, lots of them, during Covid as she reactivated an old hobby. This collection of photos of her corner of England is the result.

This is a lovely book to look at in many sections but also one that is sad at times. To get the sadness out of the way, Ms. Cracknell captures the deserted high streets and more urban locations with no one there, providing a poignant remainder of the emptiness of the pandemic. However, she also has gorgeous photos of canal boats, locks, bridges, sunrises, trees, swans and more. For those who enjoy photography and want to remember this time or just enjoy the scenes, I recommend this title.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

This is not a book about walking in lockdown.

This is a collection of framed and considered snapshots taken by a keen amateur photographer during the first few weeks of total lockdown.

There is a joy in these images; a progression of skill, aptitude and ambition with each captured scene. A sense of recording a different world while taking advantage of a moment which few have had to themselves, since long forgotten school holidays in teenage years.

In lockdown we were like contestants in I’m a celebrity or Big Brother during their first series of shows. We didn’t know how always to make use of our isolation, free time and removal of the normal. Some went inside themselves, others binged watched series, Zoom and Tik Tok were embraced and others still, rediscovered themselves, former hobbies or dormant passions and interests.

Thankfully Netty knew where her camera was and found time not just to take photos but to catalogue them, productively recording her local environment and neighbourhood while exposing both her rusty eye for a Kodak moment and an incomplete skill set. Obliviously, pursuing her interest, refining a teenage love of taking photos and improving her technique along the way.

The constant of lockdown was another day in the house; no-one voting you out other than some inner motivation to redeem the time. Netty fell back in love with nature, saw new beauty in her streets and footpaths and recorded her “journey” which for our benefit became this little book of moments in time.

I am so pleased she was encouraged to share these pictures. They give insight into the art of taking a good picture with a camera other than just a point and shoot one. I also have been looking for books that show a positive amid this pandemic and so much negative news agenda. This book deserves to be considered example from this rotten year. A joyful reminder of life within our grasps, of simple pleasures and interests we can share with others and be more than a career.

Finally it has perhaps shown me that care is er part of a ‘career’ for everyone, not just lexicon lovers. But we perhaps have set aside care in the process of ‘refining’ ourselves, our roles and motivations.

We need to care for our local community.

We need to care for others.

We need to embrace self-care and promote time to be safe and secure as who we are.

What is our new normal career?
It hasn’t got a snazzy job title, but it translates as being human.
It has less to do with what job I hold, more about who I am.

This book has gone a long way to helping me in this regard and I hope you too will catch this vibe.