Book Reviews

Notes from Walnut Tree Farm

by Roger Deakin

Notes from Walnut Tree Farm is a compilation of notes written by Roger Deakin over the last few years of his life and published after his death.

Reading the book, Deakin feels like a knowledgeable, sometimes slightly irascible, companion, always observing and commenting on the natural world around him. He was an experienced woodsman, a traveller and a home-lover, a man with many friends who also seemed immensely comfortable in his own company. At home, we see him swimming in the moat, camping out in his railway waggon, working wood. At other times, he writes about trips with friends, complains about neighbours on his beloved Mellis Common, or bemoans the loss of a spinney near his home. His eye for detail is remarkable, every moment an opportunity to observe a spider shaking in spasm when he inadvertently destroys its web or the scribbly tracks left in an elm stem by a boring beetle.

The diary format of the book allows the reader to live with Deakin over the course of a composite year. The selection of notes has a delightful rhythm to it, the entries varying from short fragmentary notes to preparatory material for his book Wildwood. For anybody with an interest in nature, there is much to learn from Deakin’s insight and lyrical language. But any reader will find Deakin’s wry sense of humour and childlike pleasure in life an absolute joy.

Dusk

by Robbie Arnott

Twin sister and brother Iris and Floyd hear of a reward for anyone who can kill a puma that is terrorising shepherds and hunters in the Tasmanian mountains. They are “Low on money and out of work, with no leads to follow or offers before them”, for reasons that become clear during the book. So, they set off in search of the animal and the bounty. The descriptions of the countryside are beautiful, and we learn more about the twins’ brutal childhood as the offspring of ex-convicts who had been shipped to Tasmania for poaching. There were aspects of the book that didn’t quite work for me but, overall, it’s a cracking adventure story and the tension builds right up to the last sentence.

The Shipping News

by Annie Proulx

The Shipping News is the story of a large, clumsy journalist, named Quoyle. The narrative follows him from his going-nowhere life and disastrous marriage to the weather-beaten shores of Newfoundland. Here, with his aunt and two daughters, he starts a new life in the house abandoned by the Quoyles 44 years ago. He finds new friends at the “Gammy Bird” local newspaper and comes to know the rough seas, brutal weather and the tough, resilient neighbours of his locality.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of the remote house, held to its bare rock by guy lines that thrum in the wind and give an imposing sense of isolation. Every so often, an iceberg drifts past. The sea, almost a character in its own right, habitually swallows boats, sailors and more. I didn’t pick up on the dark humour initially, but the Gammy Bird’s deliberately salacious menu of car crashes (more pictures the better), sex abuse and fake adverts, interspersed with Quoyle’s imagined headlines of his own absurdities were really funny.

I know there’s a film. I haven’t seen it but maybe I’ll watch it. I know it has Judi Dench in it, playing herself as the aunt. I’d be interested to see whether the dramatisation reflects the warmth of the people or the haunting backdrop of Newfoundland’s ever-shifting wind and waves.

The Fortune Men

by Madifa Mohamed

This book takes us back to the early 1950s in Cardiff’s Tiger Bay, a melting pot where immigrants try to make a living despite poverty and prejudice. Mahmood has arrived from Somalia, having worked on the ships. He is a bit of a chancer – a petty thief, liar and a gambler – not a particularly sympathetic character. He and his white wife are very much in love and have married and had three children despite opposition from many including her own family. But she has thrown him out until he can straighten himself out. Then a local shopkeeper is murdered and the policeman in charge of the case is convinced Mahmood is the culprit … I really enjoyed this read, which is a fictionalized account of a real case. It is told with great tenderness for Mahmood, who sometimes doesn’t help himself and, despite his human flaws, wanted to do the best for his wife and family.

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