Dear Readers, well I made it to Angel, traversed the Stairs of Doom without incident (you might remember that I fell down the stairs at East Finchley Station and broke my leg at the end of June) and as a reward, I had to visit a bookshop! I went to Waterstones on Islington Green – admittedly not a favourite like Daunt or the LRB bookshop, but the staff there are great, and there’s a good selection (such a good selection, in fact, that I had to tear myself away).

I managed to escape with just three paperbacks. First up is this year’s winner of the Wainwright Nature Writing Prize – ‘Late Light, the Secret Wonders of a Disappearing World‘ by Michael Malay. I love hearing new voices who are writing about nature – I recently read ‘Uprooting’ by Marchelle Farrell, about a woman from Trinidad exploring her roots, and what ‘home’ means in a Somerset village during the Pandemic. It made me think about my own views of what life in a rural community is like, and how different it might be if you are visibly ‘different’ from those that you live amongst. in ‘Late Light’, Michael Malay, a recent immigrant from Indonesia,  explores similar themes as he finds himself learning to love the English countryside and the creatures that live there, just as human development is starting to encroach on the area where he lives. I am looking forward to getting stuck in, though my reading pile is positively frightening at the moment.

My second book was rather aptly called ‘Some of Us Just Fall – On Nature and Not Getting Better‘, by Polly Atkins. I read the first few pages, and was hooked. Atkins is a poet, and it shows. She is an advocate for the need for more disabled voices in the publishing industry, and for the inclusion of more marginalised authors in outdoor and nature writing. Again, this is a perspective that’s different from those who can get out and enjoy the ‘outdoors’ easily, without even thinking about it, as I was until my fall. There’s much to learn from other people, and from my own experiences, however painful.

And finally a bit of a wildcard: ‘A History of Pictures From the Cave to the Computer Screen’, co-authored by Martin Gayford and David Hockney. I find myself more and more interested in art and what it says about human beings in a particular time and place – I’m currently reading ‘The Upside Down World – Meetings With the Dutch Masters’ by Benjamin Moser, and finding it absolutely fascinating. I can imagine myself doing an Open University qualification in Art History or somesuch once I’ve finished my biology/environmental science degree. It’s never too late to learn!

So, what are you reading and enjoying at the moment? I hesitate to ask because of the size of my reading pile, but here we go…

And so, my leg is sore but I’ve made it all the way to Islington and back whilst staying vertical. This is the longest that I’ve stood up for since June, and the first time I’ve been on a tube train. I’m feeling so glad that I’m gradually getting better, even though I am still officially in the slowest 10% of walkers along Upper Street. It’s just nice to browse in a bookshop, sit in the sun with a coffee and look at the outrageous prices of the houses in the many, many Estate Agents’ windows as we pass. Onwards and upwards!