A Short History of the World According to Sheep by Sally Coulthard

A Short History of the World According to Sheep

by Sally Coulthard

published 2020

History is generally seen from the point of view of humanity. I think it was Churchill who once said “History shall prove me right, because I shall write that history.” Since then more people have come along and written history, but not from his view point and come to different conclusions. Of course sheep are not known, by us, to be great writers so we can not be sure what they think. According to Douglas Adams the world is an experiment observed by mice, he might have been wrong and it could be being observed by sheep, they have spread across the world to most of the places that man inhabits.

This book covers the effect that man has had on sheep and the effect the sheep have had on man. For example, when the black death wiped out about one third of the world’s population agriculture changed because there were insufficient people to tend the fields, but a field of sheep only required one or two shepherds to mind them. Sheep flourished, especially in the UK, where the climate suited them and they produced high quality wool which was good for weaving. At first the wool was exported to Europe, where it was woven into cloth. This encouraged the development of the weaving industry in the UK and brought prosperity to the depleted population.

The book is full of many examples in which sheep shaped the development of England and it’s relationship with the rest of the world. I am sure they also did the same for other countries. What does the future hold for sheep, there are some that want to remove them from the Lake District, they claim sheep brought about deforestation, yet they have been there for over 6,000 years and it is hard to imagine the hills without Herdwicks, I think they know the land better than most people.

It is an interesting book and shows that sheep are much more than just woolly blobs that graze the hills and produce the cutest of creatures, lambs.

 

The Great Hippopotamus Hotel by Alexander McCall Smith

  

The Great Hippopotamus Hotel by Alexander McCall Smith

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

published 2024

This is a detective book, but not like so many other detective books, there is no body count, there are no car chases or fights. Things go at a more sedate pace, there is a great deal of thought going into finding the solutions to the problems, thought and diplomacy and a lot of tea and cake.

Mma Ramotswe doesn’t rush anywhere, nor does she jump to conclusions, Mma Makutsi can tend to do that, but she isn’t the one in charge. Mma Ramotswe, listens to everyone, she never rushes them, and then asses the facts before she comes to a conclusion. Then it is a case of working out how to solve things, once she has worked out what has happened, where they go from there. It is detection, but it is gentle and polite, a summer afternoon, sat on a veranda with tea and cake.

The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson

The Invention of Air

by Steven Johnson

Published 2009

This book is more than just a history of Joseph Priestly, amateur scientist, minister and radical thinker, than a description of the discovery of oxygen. It places him in the age of enlightenment, where science was not the preserve of professionals, but it was the preserve of people who had the time to observe the surrounding world. It places him at a time when Coffee Houses were a hot bed of discussions on all subjects and a network for passing on information on scientific experimentation.

The book also asks the question of why all this was going on then. Why were the questions being asked and answers found. It takes us back in history to when plants developed lignin, which could stiffen them, help them to grow larger, but which could not be digested by anything around then. Hence, when the plants died, they fell to the ground and lay there, this became the foundation of the coal seams, gas and oil deposits a source of energy which was later to power the industrial revolution which helped to provide the finance for Joseph Priestley’s experiments.

It is an interesting book, though not the easiest of reads. It draws connections between politics, science and religion. It shows that even someone as dedicated to discovery as Joseph Priestley, could not ignore the world around him, the French Revolution and the American War of Independence affected the people with whom he would discuss his latest experiments.

 

The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August

  

The Last Gifts of the Universe

By Riley August

This is a debut sci-fi novel.

A group of space archaeologists are looking through the remains of dead civilizations in the hope of finding some clues as to why they died out. The problem being that big business is also trying to get to the relics from these civilisations in order to make a profit out of them. Add to that, there is something out there that is busy killing off civilizations, non of them seem to have found a way to stop whatever it is, anyone who comes up against it dies. So the race would appear to be, to find the answer to the question, how do we stop it before it gets to us and we become another dead civilization.

It is an interesting idea, and the archaeologists cat is not just there to de-stress, but I was rather hoping that they would come up with some answers, or at least some idea as to who or what they were fighting. Still, it is a good yarn and keeps you interested to the end. I wish Riley August all the best for their next novel.

Leave no Trace by MJ White

Leave no Trace

by MJ White

published 2023

My Dad would never read fiction, because in his opinion it was all lies, however, in his early 90’s he picked this book up either from a charity shop or a bargain book shop and tried to read it. I thought reading it might help me work out why he chose this, of all the works of fiction he could have chosen, to be the one he tried to read.

It is a crime novel. Someone disappears and as the fifteen anniversary of approaches there rumours that he is coming back for revenge.

There are so many cliches in this book, starting with the detective in charge being the son of the detective who led the initial enquiry into the disappearance. The father has a great reputation, but the son finds there was much lacking in the initial investigation, leads not followed up, the family disregarded, that sort of thing.

Next, the detective wants someone to join the team who can hear what things say. He says he believes her, but she seems to constantly doubt that she is being taken seriously. Another member of the team is hiding the fact that she is getting a divorce and a third one hasn’t told them he is in love with the missing persons ex-girlfriend, the person he had a row with just before he left.

The book starts when the team of detectives gets hit be a white van whilst leaving a pub quiz. The missing person is caught on cctv holding up a sign saying “Help me”, but doesn’t hang around for someone to help him.

The clock is ticking down to the anniversary of his disappearance. He makes an appearance at the place where he was last seen and the story winds up with another pub quiz, but without anyone being hit by a white van.

Was any the wiser as to why my Dad chose this, of all fiction books, to read. Possibly. On the front of his copy is a sticker saying £2.99 each or any 2 for £5. So, I think it was a random book he choose because it was cheap, one book having as much value as another. The sticker does say something about the book, published in 2023 for £9.99 it was a sell off book by 2024. At the point of printing there was a list of 3 other books in the series, I don’t think I will be reading any of them, but then again, I wouldn’t have chosen to read this book if it hadn’t been for me trying to work out why my Dad tried to read it.

 

A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson

  

A Sting in the Tale

by Dave Goulson

First published 2013

This book is about Dave Goulson but mostly about his fascination with bees which started when he was young. It has taken him round the world, studying them and this book tells us what he has learned and how much more there is still to find out about them and how important that information is to prevent them from disappearing.

Bees and wasps have a common ancestor, the divergence happened when the bees started to specialise in feeding from nectar rather than anything they could scavenge which included nectar.

He explained that bees tend to be from the northern hemisphere, they haven’t spread south of the equator because the weather is too hot for them. Hence the problems of pollinating clover, grown to feed farm animals, in New Zealand. There were no bees to pollinate them, therefore the seed had to be brought over each year to grow a fresh crop. It was decided to export some bumble bee Queens from England in the hope that they would provide the necessary fertilisation. The type of bumble bee exported to New Zealand is now going scarce in the UK, so it was thought that it might be possible to reintroduce some Queens from New Zealand. After much work it was found that the bees in New Zealand descended from only two of the queens that were exported in the previous century. That and the problems of exporting them, meant that it was better to get some from Sweden. At the time of writing this book, that was an ongoing project.

Bees seem such simple things, but the book tells you so much more about them, even identifying the different bumble bees is difficult. The more you learn the more respect you have for the little creatures for example, they are better at fertilising tomatoes than people with little buzzy sticks, the fruit they produce is bigger and tastier. Basically life is better with bees around, so we must do what we can to preserve them, stop with the insecticides and plant more wild flowers so that there is always a nectar source available for them.

The Wisdom of Sheep and other Animals by Rosamund Young

  

The Wisdom of Sheep and other animals

by Rosamund Young

first published 2023

This is a book of anecdotes about farm animals written by someone who has lived with them all her life.

The first story tells is of the winter of 1947, not something she lived through, but her grandparents and tells how the snow was so deep they had to dig a tunnel through the snow to the barn. It put me in mind of something my Mother told me, about a really bad winter in Kentmere where her father dug a tunnel through the snow to the village. Mum said that the snow came up the the upstairs windows and the house was a lot warmer, till the snow melted.

A lot of the time sheep are just white blobs wandering across the hills, but not in this book, here the sheep are individuals, as are the cows. In many ways, the animals are the ones in control with the people being blessed to share their lives.

The stories are full of humour and love, written from a lifetime of observation. I thought it was a book I could put down and pick up when I had the odd minute, but I found that I kept wanting to read one more story and another after that and it was disappointing when I got to the end of the book.

The author has written another book, “The Secret Life of Cows”.