A bit disconcerting and nearly visual at times, an informative and well written book that made me learn a lot
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I loved My Octopus teacher, so I was looking forward to reading this book. It was an interesting read, for all sorts of reasons. It focuses on specific areas of the writers life and philosophy. The wild life v the tame world. Tracking. The immense importance of the natural world. The power of being cold. Relationships with wildlife. I always find it fascinating when someone perceives reality from a slightly different perspective from me. It offers the opportunity to learn, but also to compare and lay one perspective over another. So I offer a little of my perspective in the hope it may do the same.
I view what the author calls the tame world as wild in a different way. It is dangerous, destructive, selfish, it seeks greatness, and though it sometimes achieves it, it seems to lack the ability to share the planet with nature and even other humans in a mutually beneficial way. So I would say it’s the natural world v the unnatural world. Of course, as this book exemplifies beautifully, we are very much part of that natural world, and when we immerse ourselves in it we become more, not less. A desire to have control over the planet diminishes, not increases us. The seduction of the false, materialistic, greed based narrative may appear to lead us towards increase, but it disables us. Surrendering to the whole, to become a cell in an organism, makes us both tiny and vast. Having to skew my vocabulary to see the writers view, like communing with another species, or nature is healthy and life enhancing. So I am increased by this book.
It’s written engagingly and well, though I would say he writes more like a film maker than a writer. There is no timeline and stories are raised when they seem to fit in with the narrative, which can take a bit of getting used to but is not unpleasant. The areas he explores are delved into deeply in many ways, circling and weaving. All in all an enjoyable, enlightening read.