Book picks similar to
Kilvert's Diary by Francis Kilvert
diaries
nature
biographies
other-non-fiction
Apologia Pro Vita Sua (A Defense of One's Life)
John Henry Newman - 1864
Mary's, Oxford, to join the Roman Catholic church. Perhaps no one took greater offense than Protestant clergyman Charles Kingsley, whose scathing attacks against Newman's faith and honor inspired this brilliant response. Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Newman's spiritual autobiography, explores the depths and nature of Christianity with flowing prose and a conversational style that has ensured its status as a classic."False ideas may be refuted by argument, but by true ideas alone are they expelled. I will vanquish," Newman promised, "not my accuser, but my judges." His honest and passionate defense consists of a personal history of his religious convictions, from earliest memory through the Oxford movement and his ultimate conversion. His concluding point-by-point refutation of Kingsley's charges features thought-provoking contentions that strike at the very roots of the principles underlying Protestantism. Newman won respect and admiration with his Apologia, a work that has helped clarify perceptions of Roman Catholicism among readers of every faith.
The Hand of Ethelberta
Thomas Hardy - 1876
Turning the male-dominated literary world to her advantage, she happily exploits the attentions of four very different suitors. Will she bestow her hand upon the richest of them, or on the man she loves? Ethelberta Petherwin, alias Berta Chickerel, moves with easy grace between her multiple identities, cleverly managing a tissue of lies to aid her meteoric rise. In "The Hand of Ethelberta" (1876), Hardy drew on conventions of popular romances, illustrated weeklies, plays, fashion plates, and even his wife's diary in this comic story of a woman in control of her destiny.
A Gull on the Roof
Derek Tangye - 1961
Before people started writing about their tedious years in Provence or Tuscany or wherever, Derek Tangye and his wife gave up their urbane sophisticated life in London to move to a run down roofless cottage in Cornwall (that they could only lease, not buy) to earn a living from the land farming flowers - daffodils and violets - and potatoes in the 1950s!The early part of the book has fascinating details about cultivating flowers and potatoes on sloping fields near a cliff edge throughout the capricious and unpredictable Cornish seasons, dealing with potato salesmen, local farmers and getting the flowers on to the British Rail flower train. It sounds hideously boring, but bizarrely it's incredibly readable.You learn a lot about how much the UK has changed in the past 50 years or so and how places like Cornwall were in massive decay after the war. It's a great book to read if you're going down to Cornwall for a holiday and great to read if you want to get away in your mind at least from the grind of city life and dream about a simple, but very hard, life surrounded by nature and some lovely animals.
The Last Season
Eric Blehm - 2006
Blehm narrates this true account of the disappearance and search for Randy Morgenson, a National Park Service ranger who, one morning after 28 seasons on the job, failed to answer his radio call.The introverted Morgenson was more comfortable with the natural world than with people. A gifted photographer and a lyrical writer, he dropped out of college to begin a career that would send him into the remote parts of California's Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Passionate about the mountains, he excelled at his responsibilities, which ranged from clearing away garbage left by careless campers to rescuing injured hikers. Dedicated to keeping the wilderness undisturbed, he was proud of his ability to leave no trace of himself wherever he camped.That skill would prove costly when, at age 54, he went missing. Blehm seamlessly combines a detective story with a celebration of nature that calls to mind the works of classic American writers like Thoreau and Emerson. His gripping narrative will cause readers' hearts to ache at the disappearance of this undervalued soul. But their spirits will soar at the grandeur and mysticism of nature expertly captured in its most primal state.
Life in a Jungle: My Autobiography
Bruce Grobbelaar - 2018
And yet, question marks have followed him around; question marks about his goalkeeping suitability after arriving on Merseyside; question marks about his integrity after match fixing allegations were laid against him. Here, Grobbelaar takes you to Africa, where nothing is at it seems; he takes you back to an era when Liverpool ruled Europe; he takes you to the benches of the Anfield dressing room, where only the strongest personalities survived. For the first time, he takes you inside the court room, detailing the draining fight to clear his name.
A Place for Us: A Greek Immigrant Boy's Odyssey to a New Country and an Unknown Father
Nicholas Gage - 1989
Inthis sequel to the bestselling ELENI Nicholas gage tells the moving story of meeting his father and growing up in Worcester, Mass.
Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions, Vol 1
Frank Harris - 2001
You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Copsford
Walter J.C. Murray - 1948
Written just before the British countryside was largely devastated by factory farming and the reckless use of herbicides and pesticides. Magical. The original book had photographs by the author, but this has b&w drawings for chapter headings only. Green cloth boards.
Be Careful What You Wish For
Simon Jordan - 2012
After making million in mobile phones he decided to buy his boyhood club, Crystal Palace. At 31, he became the youngest chairman ever. He was also the most outspoken, announcing at his first Palace press conference: 'I don't give a **** about football protocol.' Football is a notoriously murky world: overpriced players, dodgy transfers, top-level corruption. Of course, the establishment always closes rank and those at the top stay quiet. But Jordan doesn't do quiet. And now, for the first time, he lifts the lid on what really goes on behind the scenes in football. With his year-round tan Jordan may be a 'marmite' figure, but love him or hate him his story is a revelation. Every fan dreams of owning their own club. As a boy Simon would break into the Palace grounds, where his dad once played, for a kick-about with his brother. And Simon's love for Palace remains undimmed to this day. But his owner's tale is a hair-raising story of desire and whimsy, success and disaster. It's a reminder to any fan -- be careful what you wish for.
The Salt Path
Raynor Winn - 2018
With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only the essentials for survival on their backs as they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.
Pondlife: A Swimmer's Journal
Al Álvarez - 2013
For the best part of his life Al Alvarez - poet, critic, novelist, rock-climber and poker player - has swum in them almost daily. An athlete in his youth, Alvarez, now in his eighties, chronicles what it is to grow old with humour and fierce honesty - from his relentlessly nagging ankle which makes daily life a struggle, to infuriating bureaucratic battles with the council to keep his disabled person's Blue Badge, the devastating effects of a stroke, and the salvation he finds in the three Ss - Swimming, Sex and Sleep.As Alvarez swims in the ponds he considers how it feels when you begin to miss that person you used to be - to miss yourself. Swimming is his own private form of protest against the onslaught of time; proof to others, and himself, that he's not yet beaten. By turns funny, poetic and indignant, "Pondlife" is a meditation on love, the importance of life's small pleasures and, above all, a lesson in not going gently in to that good night.
My Life in the Maine Woods: A Game Warden's Wife in the Allagash Country
Annette Jackson - 2007
Jackson, an avid sportswoman and nature lover, writes of hunting, fishing, campfire cooking, and the sounds of the wilderness through the seasons. She visits trappers and woodsmen, and tells what it's like to sleep on a bed of pine boughs under the stars that shine on the legendary Allagash. This new edition expands on Jackson's original, including not only new photographs, author biography, and foreword, but also new material from Jackson and revisions she made following its original publication.
iPod, Therefore I Am
Dylan Jones - 2005
Small, sleek, and sexy, but with the capacity to hold up to ten thousand songs, the iPod has stunned music lovers and gadget enthusiasts around the world. It has delighted indie-rock college kids and elderly jazz fans, classical musical buffs and teenage hip-hop hustlers, almost no technology has so seamlessly crossed the great divide. In iPod, Therefore I Am, Jones tells the story of his own entrée into this exponentially growing cult, taking the reader on a hilariously candid journey through his lifelong addiction to all genres of music, however unfashionable. Along the way, he gives a tantalizing behind-the-scenes look at the genesis of the iPod, from its original conception by Steve Jobs, the man who famously reinvented Apple Computer, to the landmark design of Jonathan Ive, the innovative designer who has become a legend in his own time. Behind it all, we get an insight into the way that the iPod has radically transformed the way we approach music, listen to music, and possess music—turning all of us into curators. Appendices containing Jones's top playlists and his expert tips on getting the most out of your iPod make this love song to the iPod as practical as it is entertaining.
The Hezbollah Hiking Club: A short walk across the Lebanon
Dom Joly - 2019
470 kilometres. Twenty-one days.
Welcome to the Hezbollah Hiking Club . . .
At a boozy, cricket-filled afternoon at Lord's, Dom Joly convinces his two closest friends to agree to the unthinkable: a challenging hike across Lebanon, from the Israeli border in the south, along the spine of the country's mountain range, all the way to the Syrian border in the north. For Joly it is something of a homecoming, having grown up in Beirut. It was a happy childhood, though he did go to school with Osama bin Laden.Arriving in Lebanon armed with copious amounts of Vaseline - and no walking experience, bar taking the dog for the occasional stroll - Dom, Chris and Harry don't quite know what they've got themselves into. Joined by their bemused chaperone Caroll, they meet a variety of characters along the way including Ali, a stony-faced Hezbollah Museum guide who seems unperturbed by circling Israeli jets, and part-time Londoner Raf, who challenges Dom and the boys to a brain-freeze drinking contest. From a hair-raising creep along the 'Valley of the Skulls' to accidentally flashing an unsuspecting Ethiopian cook, the three friends just about manage to keep going.With more than a smattering of persiflage and some cringe-worthy moments, The Hezbollah Hiking Club is a big-hearted, witty and affectionate love letter to Lebanon and its rich history with a meditation on family and homeland at its heart. Written with Dom's trademark humour, it is a paean to both the simple joys of friendship and to growing old disgracefully.
One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey
Sam Keith - 1973
Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. He found a place, built a cabin, and stayed to become part of the country. One Man's Wilderness is a simple account of the day-to-day explorations and activities he carried out alone, and the constant chain of nature's events that kept him company. From Proenneke's journals, and with first-hand knowledge of his subject and the setting, Sam Keith has woven a tribute to a man who carved his masterpiece out of the beyond.