Tag Archives: Non Fiction

In My Hands Today…

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Finding Hildasay: How One Man Walked the UK’s Coastline and Found Hope and Happiness – Christian Lewis

Join Christian Lewis as he walks the entire coastline of the UK – his dog Jet in tow – and rebuilds his life, step by step. With a foreword from longtime supporter Ben Fogle, Finding HIldasay is his inspiring true story of reconnecting with nature and finding hope along the way.Ex-paratrooper Christian Lewis had hit rock bottom, suffering with depression so severe he would shut himself in his bedroom for weeks. Then while surfing – his sole respite – he cast his eyes along the coastline and realized it was the only place he really wanted to be.

Then, Chris made an impulsive decision. He set himself a to walk the entire coastline of the UK. He gave himself a few days to rustle up a tent and walking boots, then left for good with just a tenner in his pocket and two days’ worth of food. Little did he know at the time just how long it would take to cross the finish line – and the encounters lying ahead would turn his life around.

Almost six years later, Chris has navigated the West Coast, Northern Ireland, the hard-rock cliffs of Scotland and the perimeters of the Scottish Islands. He spent three months on an uninhabited island called Hildasay, with beloved dog Jet. It was there, the most barren his route had become, that he found within himself the pride and respect he needed – and his journey became all the more remarkable. Happiness and hope was just around the corner . . .

In My Hands Today…

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The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple – Ben Aitken

While hunting for a room in London, Ben Aitken came across one for a great price in a lovely part of town.

There had to be a catch. And there was. The catch was an 85-year-old widow who doesn’t suffer fools.

Full of warmth, wit and candor, The Marmalade Diaries tells the story of an unlikely friendship built during an unlikely time.

One of the pair, a grieving aristocrat in her mid-eighties. The other? A millennial snowflake.

What could possibly go wrong? What could possibly go right? Out of the most inauspicious of soils comes a book about grief, family, friendship, loneliness, life, love, lockdown and marmalade.

In My Hands Today…

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The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way – Bill Bryson

How did English, ‘treated for centuries as the inadequate and second-rate tongue of peasants’ become the undisputed global language?

How did words like shampoo, sofa and rowdy (and others drawn from over fifty languages) find their way into our dictionary?

In this revealing and often hilarious book, Bill Bryson examines the mother tongue and explores the countless varieties of English and the perils of marketing brands with names like Pschitt and Super Piss.

With entertaining sections on the oddities of swearing and spelling, spoonerisms and Scrabble, and a consideration of what we mean by ‘good English’, Mother Tongue is one of the most stimulating books yet written on this endlessly engrossing subject.

Bill Bryson’s classic Mother Tongue is a highly readable and hilarious tale of how English came to be the world’s language.

In My Hands Today…

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The Way of the Hermit: My 40 Years in the Scottish Wilderness – Ken Smith, Will Millard

Could you leave behind the bustle of modern society and spend your days immersed in nature? In The Way of the Hermit, seventy-four-year-old Ken Smith recounts a life he has chosen to spend alone with the wilderness.

Ken Smith has spent the past four decades in the Scottish Highlands. He lives alone, with no electricity or running water. His home is a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as ‘the lonely loch’, where he lives off the he fishes for his supper, chops his own wood, and even brews his own tipple. He is, in the truest sense of the word, a hermit.

For the first time, Ken shares the story of his life. From his working-class origins in Derbyshire, to the formative years he spent travelling in the Yukon and finally how he came to be the Hermit of Loch Treig. Looking back through decades of diary entries, Ken reflects upon the reasons he turned his back on society, the vulnerability of old age and the awe and wonder of a life lived in nature. The Way of the Hermit is a humorous, transcendent and life-affirming memoir.

In My Hands Today…

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In the Hide: How The Natural World Saved My Life – Gordon Buchanan

Our estate, Bellsmyre, was built on land claimed from fields – we were at the foot of those rolling Kilpatrick hills, but over the roof of the school you could see more green fields and woods. There was a physical barrier formed by the rest of the estate and the school, but I felt grateful to be on the edge of all that countryside. Even at a very young age, there was a magnetic pull towards what I thought that wild was, or could be. ‘One day, I’m going to walk to those hills and woods,’ I’d think to myself.

Soon, it would become a sanctuary.

Gordon Buchanan is probably the best known natural history cameraman the BBC has ever produced. From wild ‘snow wolf’ packs in Ellesmere and polar bears in Svalbard to leopards in Mumbai and equine therapy in Mongolia, he has filmed in the world’s most far-reaching places for over 30 years. His dedication to his craft means he often spends weeks inside a cramped camera hide, tolerating extreme sleep deprivation and poor living conditions, all in search of that one extraordinary shot.

But dangerous animals were not the only thing he was hiding from.

In the Hide is Gordon’s emotionally honest and raw account of a brutal childhood in Glasgow and Mull, and the escape and solace he found – and continues to find – in the natural world around him. An intimate and inspiring account of resilience in the face of hardship, Gordon shares the story of his lifelong love for nature like never before.