Books: Four Fields - Tim Dee

[cybermule]

 I can't remember how I picked this book up. What I think happened was that I was looking for Tim Dee's new book on Amazon as a present for ashlyme

  and this popped up in the other choices. I'd already read (and reviewed) The Running Sky, which I thought was Dee's only book. And so I was very much OMG, especially as an old friend had recently done something similar in poetry (The Soil Never Sleeps - also reviewed).

So four fields - Cambridgeshire, South Africa, Montana and the Ukraine. I've always had a gentle obsession with the Fens - they're the antithesis of the Cotswolds where I grew up. Plus my only "foreign" grandparent came from there. Plus I've barely ever been near them to be honest. Too far. Too flat. So those bits were interesting. The South African deserts have always held a fascination for me. Obviously a filed in Chernobyl = WOW! But I was unprepared for the delicate depth and compassion of the treatment of the field in Montana, the history of the indigenous folks and the prairies. Tim Dee handles this in such a calm and moving way, and it's translated to the other areas as well. The book flows well between the different locations, and Dee is actually also wonderfully human about himself. He's not afraid to be weak and crap, and this is what I like about the more modern Nature Writing, compared the the omnipotent white man writings I explored as a child.

So well written and definitely worth a read. I borrowed it from the library but I may well get a copy of my own for lending and revisiting purposes.

Comments

[ashlyme]

If Four Fields is anything as good as Landfill (subtitle should be Guller's Travels) then I desperately want to read it. My brain is reading "A Field in Chernobyl" as folk-horror Stalker.

Love you. <3

[cybermule]

It's awesome. Sadly I have too many ideas for your birthday present :P But, talking of Stalker...

[whotheheckami]

I avoided the Fens for many many years. I have the hills and seas wrapped around my DNA and didn't trust or feel comfortable on land that flat. However, a friend lives out there and I spent some time with the and felt quite a pull. The sky is just so utterly amazing; at times it is all there is. I took my dog out for a walk and had to keep lying down on in the fields to really get a feel for so much sky. And that was in the daytime!