Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie

Jamie writes in a spare uncompromising style in this set of essays about landscape and her travels through some of the most remote parts of it. She shows us things most of us will not see, icebergs, the aurora from the Arctic circle, killer whales off the remote abandoned islands of St Kilda and Rona, cave drawings, and the estuary like view of human cells down a microscope in a pathology lab. What links the essays is a search for wilderness but Jamie is never cliched, never glorifying 'the wild' as something pure that we should attain to, but taking each experience as and of itself, never fearing to be crude or uncomplimentary. There are so many books about our experiences with nature that anything new to the canon needs to say something new, and Jamie does.

What I found curious was her urge to search for wildness, people do seem drawn to try and find the most remote 'untouched' landscapes, but that's to mistake what is before you.  I was at the Coop yesterday, just beside it the Dighty Burn flows out from a culvert, it's come from the Panbride Estate and past our house before getting there.  Beside the burn a tree leans over with grasses and bulbs at it's feet.  It's picturesque and a glimpse of wilderness in its own way, the small, as well as the epic, can be wild.

Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman


Before Lee Scoresby, Texan aeronaut and adventurer, swung his way into Pullman's Northern Lights Trilogy in his dirigible he landed in the Arctic oil town of Novy Odensk.  Scoresby being who he is it wasn't long before he was forced to fight his way out of the town with the help of his new friend, the mighty polar bear Iorek Byrnison.  This is that story, beautifully packaged in a little blue fabric bound hardback illustrated with enchanting engravings by John Lawrence and sprinkled with intriguing ephemera.  At the back is a board game 'Peril of the Pole' complete with spinner and game pieces.

This is the kind of book you enjoy having in your hands and is a delightful diminutive companion to the epic Northern Lights.

Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman

AZ: "When Lyra is studying at Oxford University, she comes across the story of Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnisson's first meeting, many years ago, along with much evidence of the adventure that brought them together. When a young Texan balloonist, Lee Scoresby, comes down to earth in the harbour of an Arctic town in the North, little does he realise that he is about to be embroiled in an out-and-out political brawl. Lee and his daemon, Hester, find themselves the target of political factions trying to take over the running (and oil) of the town. And also resident in the town are huge arctic bears, ignored and patronised by the people and treated like second-class citizens. When Lee and Iorek first meet, they cement a friendship that will continue throughout their lives, as the tensions and pressure in town lead to a deadly conclusion..."

Another beautiful little book, this time bound in navy blue with silver embossed writing. Includes a fantasic little game: Peril of the Pole, tantalising maps and 'ephemera', left me watering at the mouth and wanting more!

Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman

AZ: "A small bundle of material that has somehow slipped between Lyra's universe and our own. The book includes a wonderful new story by Philip Pullman, fully illustrated intricate maps and other ephemera from Lyra's universe. The text is illustrated throughout in beautiful black and white wood-blocks by the highly acclaimed engraver, John Lawrence, together with specially printed three-colour pull out maps of "Lyra's Oxford". This publication could have come from a parallel universe. The short story contained within "Lyra's Oxford" finds Lyra with her daemon Pantalaimon a couple of years after the end of "The Amber Spyglass". Sitting on the roofs of Oxford she sees a bird, the daemon of a witch, a storm petrel flying towards her pursued by a huge and angry flock of starlings. Birds play a big part in this story. And gradually a mystery unfolds.."

Set after the end of the Dark Materials trilogy, this is a short story about Lyra encountering the mystery that is the universe, in this case that her Oxford and its birds are protecting her couched within a visitation from a witch's daemon. Beautifully presented in a little hardback book with tantalising 'extracts' from newspapers and other ephemera a small story perfectly crafted.