Review: Vivien Horler

An Inconvenience of Penguins – Epic voyages in pursuit of the world’s most beloved bird, by Jamie Lafferty (Wildfire)

Some people collect stamps or medals – Jamie Lafferty collects penguins.

He’s a Scottish-born freelance travel writer, and in the Galapagos he conceived the idea of seeing and photographing all 18 species of penguin.

Now the thing about penguins, with the broad exception of our African penguins, is that they tend to be found in far-flung places like Antarctica and South Georgia and the Galapagos – all difficult or expensive to get to, hence the title of this book.

It also didn’t help that Lafferty had very little money, which made him dependent on helpful travel editors and travel and cruise companies that were willing to give him a free trip in exchange for some positive copy. Continue reading →

Review: Vivien Horler

Swift – A memoir, by Melinda Ferguson (Ride or Die, an imprint of Melinda Ferguson Books)

When you get to the last line in this memoir, it’s hard not to weep.

The story catches us up in a desperate attempt to save a baby bird. Most of us have tried to do that at some stage – haven’t we? – finding a baby bird fallen out of a nest, putting it in a box with some water or even milk, and waking in the morning to find it dead.

This isn’t that story.

It’s about the courageous rescue of a Little Swift, a bird that, like some swifts, flies for up to two years without landing; eating, sleeping and even mating on the wing, and nesting only to breed. If you’ve seen a swift on a perch or a phone wire, chances are it’s a swallow.

But the story of Swifty is only one strand of Melinda Ferguson’s heart-wrenching memoir – it is also about the sudden death of her partner Mat, and her determination to save the bird so that it can carry Mat’s soul on.

Do not be put off at this point. This isn’t a woo-woo book, it’s a story of a desperate quest written by a woman in the throes of grief. Continue reading →

Review: Vivien Horler

Follow Me to Africa – A novel by Penny Haw (Sourcebooks Landmark)

Seventeen-year-old Grace Clark finds it’s a long way from Tewkesbury to the Olduvai Gorge in East Africa, where her estranged father has dragged her so he can meet the famed archaeologist Mary Leakey.

A sulky Grace thinks the only thing worse than being somewhere you don’t want to be is discovering no one else wants you there either. Grace has overheard Mary telling her father: “We can’t have a teenager hanging around. This is a dig, not a discotheque. She’ll have to do something.”

Grace surveys the area – it looks dry, scorched and ragged. Her father doesn’t feel the same way: “Look at this place. Isn’t it magnificent? It’s nothing like Cambridge. Or Tewkesbury. Nothing like anything you’ve seen before.”

To which Grace responds: “Thank God.” Continue reading →

Review: Vivien Horler

Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi (Fontana)

Theo of Golden is a novel about an old Portuguese man who comes to stay in Golden, a small college town in the southern US state of Georgia. He makes friends and spreads love.

There’s a bit of a mystery – who is this old man who seems to go through life without a surname, and why did he come to Golden? There is some violence, not too much. Mainly it is a story about love and wonder and beauty and companionship.

There were times, especially at the beginning, when I found the novel less than compelling. And yet I kept reading, and I’m so glad I did. Continue reading →