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Wanderland
Bloomsbury presents Wanderland written and read by Jini Reddy.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR UK NATURE WRITING
Alone on a remote mountaintop one dark night, a woman hears a mysterious voice.
Propelled by the memory and after years of dreaming about it, Jini Reddy dares to delve into the ‘wanderlands’ of Britain, heading off in search of the magical in the landscape.
A London journalist with multicultural roots and a perennial outsider, she determinedly sets off on this unorthodox path. Serendipity and her inner compass guide her around the country in pursuit of the Other and a connection to Britain’s captivating natural world. Where might this lead? And if you know what it is to be Othered yourself, how might this colour your experiences? And what if, in invoking the spirit of the land, ‘it’ decides to make its presence felt?
Whether following a ‘cult’ map to a hidden well that refuses to reveal itself, attempting to persuade a labyrinth to spill its secrets, embarking on a coast-to-coast pilgrimage or searching for a mystical land temple, Jini depicts a whimsical, natural Britain. Along the way, she tracks down ephemeral wild art, encounters women who worship The Goddess, falls deeper in love with her birth land and struggles – but mostly fails – to get to grips with its lore. Throughout, she rejoices in the wildness we cannot see and celebrates the natural beauty we can, while offering glimpses of her Canadian childhood and her Indian parents’ struggles in apartheid-era South Africa.
Wanderland is a book in which the heart leads, all things are possible and the Other, both wild and human, comes in from the cold. It is a paean to the joy of roaming, both figuratively and imaginatively, and to the joy of finding your place in the world.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR UK NATURE WRITING
Alone on a remote mountaintop one dark night, a woman hears a mysterious voice.
Propelled by the memory and after years of dreaming about it, Jini Reddy dares to delve into the ‘wanderlands’ of Britain, heading off in search of the magical in the landscape.
A London journalist with multicultural roots and a perennial outsider, she determinedly sets off on this unorthodox path. Serendipity and her inner compass guide her around the country in pursuit of the Other and a connection to Britain’s captivating natural world. Where might this lead? And if you know what it is to be Othered yourself, how might this colour your experiences? And what if, in invoking the spirit of the land, ‘it’ decides to make its presence felt?
Whether following a ‘cult’ map to a hidden well that refuses to reveal itself, attempting to persuade a labyrinth to spill its secrets, embarking on a coast-to-coast pilgrimage or searching for a mystical land temple, Jini depicts a whimsical, natural Britain. Along the way, she tracks down ephemeral wild art, encounters women who worship The Goddess, falls deeper in love with her birth land and struggles – but mostly fails – to get to grips with its lore. Throughout, she rejoices in the wildness we cannot see and celebrates the natural beauty we can, while offering glimpses of her Canadian childhood and her Indian parents’ struggles in apartheid-era South Africa.
Wanderland is a book in which the heart leads, all things are possible and the Other, both wild and human, comes in from the cold. It is a paean to the joy of roaming, both figuratively and imaginatively, and to the joy of finding your place in the world.
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Published October 8, 2020
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About the author
Jini Reddy
2 books9 followersJini Reddy is a freelance author and writer.
Wanderland, her new book published by Bloomsbury Books, is out now, in the UK. It has just been longlisted for the Wainwright Prize, 2020. The prize celebrates the best in nature writing.
Her first, Wild Times was published in 2016. It won the book prize at the British Guild of Travel Writers Awards 2017 and was a finalist at the Travel Media Awards 2017.
She has also contributed to Winter, a best-selling anthology edited by Melissa Harrison and published by Elliott and Thompson.
She has been a been a journalist for many years, specialising in travel and features. Her byline has appeared in The Guardian, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Times, Sunday Times Style, the Financial Times, the Independent, TIME magazine, National Geographic Traveller, Geographical, Psychologies, Resurgence and the Ecologist and countless other publications, both print and online.
Recently Reddy was named one of National Geographic’s Women of Impact.
Reddy was born in Wimbledon, London and grew up in Montreal, Quebec to Indian parents who were raised in apartheid-era South Africa.
She received her B.A in Geography from Canada's oldest university, McGill, in Montreal and my M.A. in English Literature at Avignon University in France. She also has a diploma in French Languages and Literature from Aix Marseille University and I studied Journalism at the London College of Communications. She started her career in book publishing, at Penguin Books.
Following stints in Hong Kong, Provence and Tbilisi, she now lives in South West London.
Wanderland, her new book published by Bloomsbury Books, is out now, in the UK. It has just been longlisted for the Wainwright Prize, 2020. The prize celebrates the best in nature writing.
Her first, Wild Times was published in 2016. It won the book prize at the British Guild of Travel Writers Awards 2017 and was a finalist at the Travel Media Awards 2017.
She has also contributed to Winter, a best-selling anthology edited by Melissa Harrison and published by Elliott and Thompson.
She has been a been a journalist for many years, specialising in travel and features. Her byline has appeared in The Guardian, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Times, Sunday Times Style, the Financial Times, the Independent, TIME magazine, National Geographic Traveller, Geographical, Psychologies, Resurgence and the Ecologist and countless other publications, both print and online.
Recently Reddy was named one of National Geographic’s Women of Impact.
Reddy was born in Wimbledon, London and grew up in Montreal, Quebec to Indian parents who were raised in apartheid-era South Africa.
She received her B.A in Geography from Canada's oldest university, McGill, in Montreal and my M.A. in English Literature at Avignon University in France. She also has a diploma in French Languages and Literature from Aix Marseille University and I studied Journalism at the London College of Communications. She started her career in book publishing, at Penguin Books.
Following stints in Hong Kong, Provence and Tbilisi, she now lives in South West London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
May 6, 2023
In brief - This is a very personal take on magic/mysticism in the landscape. It won't be for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
In full
Jini Reddy wants to discover or commune with the wild. She introduces this book with some of her past experiences and her ideas for the future. An important aspect of this for her is being Other. She was born in the UK of Indian parents who had moved from South Africa because of apartheid. She then spent her childhood in Canada before returning to the UK. Other is something that resonates with her but can she find places to be Other and delve more into the magical and mystical? This book follows her quest to a number of places. Some are quite obvious locations such as Glastonbury and Lindisfarne. Some were - to me - unknown and possibly more interesting.
Personally I found the story of her early life engaging. The writing is good and there is a lightness of touch to her story telling. Her time in Canada was retold with warmth and affection. I looked forward to reading the rest of the book.
For those with an inclination to this subject some of the themes that run through the book will not be surprising. Labyrinths is one of them and initially she visits one on the coast in Cornwall. I enjoyed her telling of this experience and continued to warm to the book. Cornwall appears again in another chapter and this one was a favourite of mine. She walk St Michael's Way which crosses from the north coast to the south to arrive at St Michael's Mount. I was aware of this route however I didn't realise it was part of the Camino. It's certainly gone on to the to do list!
While the theme of looking for the magical continues throughout the book the locations are varied. Her time in Iona was something I really enjoyed however Glastonbury maybe worked less well for her and I was unsurprised I guess. Some of her experiences in Wales fell short of what she had hoped for too. The experiences she had that appealed to me worked well and powerfully so at times. The quest for the secret spring was one I loved. Trees, ruins and legends all feature in this book and in the author's desire to be able to gain something from them.
I was drawn to this book initially based on the idea that it might appeal to those who liked Robert Macfarlane's work (I certainly do!). For me it isn't really quite like that but there are echoes here. This is a quest for something. However to me while apparently a quest in places it seemed like an inner quest too. Jini was seeking the shaman, the mystic, the earth mother and the like within herself as well as meeting Others. Maybe she was also looking for a purpose after some life events that were somewhat mixed. This book is worthwhile for what she finds and what she doesn't. However I found it most fascinating for the things and people who find her - synchronicity, happenstance or whatever; some of these encounters were the best parts of the book for me.
This is an intensely personal narrative and I'm sure some will find it not to their taste. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and I'd like to think I would visit some of the places myself in time. If you see themes and ideas in this that appeal to you I would honestly say give it a try. This is a warm, interesting and accessible read. I will certainly be interested in any further books by Jini Reddy. 4.5/5
Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
In full
Jini Reddy wants to discover or commune with the wild. She introduces this book with some of her past experiences and her ideas for the future. An important aspect of this for her is being Other. She was born in the UK of Indian parents who had moved from South Africa because of apartheid. She then spent her childhood in Canada before returning to the UK. Other is something that resonates with her but can she find places to be Other and delve more into the magical and mystical? This book follows her quest to a number of places. Some are quite obvious locations such as Glastonbury and Lindisfarne. Some were - to me - unknown and possibly more interesting.
Personally I found the story of her early life engaging. The writing is good and there is a lightness of touch to her story telling. Her time in Canada was retold with warmth and affection. I looked forward to reading the rest of the book.
For those with an inclination to this subject some of the themes that run through the book will not be surprising. Labyrinths is one of them and initially she visits one on the coast in Cornwall. I enjoyed her telling of this experience and continued to warm to the book. Cornwall appears again in another chapter and this one was a favourite of mine. She walk St Michael's Way which crosses from the north coast to the south to arrive at St Michael's Mount. I was aware of this route however I didn't realise it was part of the Camino. It's certainly gone on to the to do list!
While the theme of looking for the magical continues throughout the book the locations are varied. Her time in Iona was something I really enjoyed however Glastonbury maybe worked less well for her and I was unsurprised I guess. Some of her experiences in Wales fell short of what she had hoped for too. The experiences she had that appealed to me worked well and powerfully so at times. The quest for the secret spring was one I loved. Trees, ruins and legends all feature in this book and in the author's desire to be able to gain something from them.
I was drawn to this book initially based on the idea that it might appeal to those who liked Robert Macfarlane's work (I certainly do!). For me it isn't really quite like that but there are echoes here. This is a quest for something. However to me while apparently a quest in places it seemed like an inner quest too. Jini was seeking the shaman, the mystic, the earth mother and the like within herself as well as meeting Others. Maybe she was also looking for a purpose after some life events that were somewhat mixed. This book is worthwhile for what she finds and what she doesn't. However I found it most fascinating for the things and people who find her - synchronicity, happenstance or whatever; some of these encounters were the best parts of the book for me.
This is an intensely personal narrative and I'm sure some will find it not to their taste. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and I'd like to think I would visit some of the places myself in time. If you see themes and ideas in this that appeal to you I would honestly say give it a try. This is a warm, interesting and accessible read. I will certainly be interested in any further books by Jini Reddy. 4.5/5
Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
June 12, 2020
People visit the countryside for a variety of different reasons, some for the pleasure of being away from a screen, some for the fresh air and others for some more serious rest and relaxation. There are plenty of guides that you can buy that suggest places to go and things to do, but there are times when some people want to find their own way and set their own agenda.
Reddy is a London based journalist who has had an unconventional and multicultural upbringing. With this outsiders perspective, she sets off on a journey to the English countryside to seek the spiritual and the magical where ever it exists. But rather than go to the classical spiritual sites of the UK , Reddy chooses to find her own paths and use her own inner compass as a guide. This personal pilgrimage had started up a mountain in the Pyrenees with a tent, nine bottles of water and, er, that was it. Alone in the tent the first night she heard a strange voice, terrified, she lay still for a couple of minutes that it lasted and it went as suddenly as it came. To this day she does not know what it was that made that sound, but it led to her wanting to know more about the spirit of the natural world.
It was the beginning of a journey that would take her all over the UK, to the far west in Cornwall, to visit a labyrinth on a farm and is soothed by the sound of birds and the sea. To High Weald in Sussex to search for the search for a spring with magical qualities and onto Herefordshire to meet a lady who has a ‘kenning’ or ‘knowing’ of the plants and animals that surround her. Lindisfarne is also on her travel list, to stay in a Christian retreat house and listen to the silence. Reddy has a passion for trees too and she arranges a trip arrange to Derwent Valley to meet a tree whisperer and she is lucky enough to get to visit the Ash Dome, a piece of living art created by the sculptor David Nash, high in the welsh hills, a place where the 22 trees have been grown together in the shape of a vortex. There is the obligatory visit to Glastonbury, a place where the magic has been expressed in retail form…
A sizeable portion of recent writing about the outdoors and landscape is about what the author can take from it, how it inspired them or was there as a crutch for their own health and wellbeing. And they are good reads, picking up on the connections that we have long lost to the natural world. A lot of this writing has been from predominately white male writers, with female authors only starting to get a look-in in the past few years. Reddy is a breath of fresh air in this camp, as she writes from a perspective from her family heritage and multicultural upbringing. She draws deep on all these facets and elements of her mother’s Hindu faith to explore the countryside in a way that I have not come across before. I really liked it because of that, she is prepared to embrace the activities that she has chosen, whilst still being a touch sceptical about it. It is also a reminder that the natural world is more than just the picturesque, there are thin places that have always had special significance to people over millennia. As an aside, it has an absolutely beautiful cover. If this sort of book interests you, I can also recommend Rising Ground by Philip Marsden, it focuses more on the spiritual legacy left behind in the landscape.
Reddy is a London based journalist who has had an unconventional and multicultural upbringing. With this outsiders perspective, she sets off on a journey to the English countryside to seek the spiritual and the magical where ever it exists. But rather than go to the classical spiritual sites of the UK , Reddy chooses to find her own paths and use her own inner compass as a guide. This personal pilgrimage had started up a mountain in the Pyrenees with a tent, nine bottles of water and, er, that was it. Alone in the tent the first night she heard a strange voice, terrified, she lay still for a couple of minutes that it lasted and it went as suddenly as it came. To this day she does not know what it was that made that sound, but it led to her wanting to know more about the spirit of the natural world.
It was the beginning of a journey that would take her all over the UK, to the far west in Cornwall, to visit a labyrinth on a farm and is soothed by the sound of birds and the sea. To High Weald in Sussex to search for the search for a spring with magical qualities and onto Herefordshire to meet a lady who has a ‘kenning’ or ‘knowing’ of the plants and animals that surround her. Lindisfarne is also on her travel list, to stay in a Christian retreat house and listen to the silence. Reddy has a passion for trees too and she arranges a trip arrange to Derwent Valley to meet a tree whisperer and she is lucky enough to get to visit the Ash Dome, a piece of living art created by the sculptor David Nash, high in the welsh hills, a place where the 22 trees have been grown together in the shape of a vortex. There is the obligatory visit to Glastonbury, a place where the magic has been expressed in retail form…
A sizeable portion of recent writing about the outdoors and landscape is about what the author can take from it, how it inspired them or was there as a crutch for their own health and wellbeing. And they are good reads, picking up on the connections that we have long lost to the natural world. A lot of this writing has been from predominately white male writers, with female authors only starting to get a look-in in the past few years. Reddy is a breath of fresh air in this camp, as she writes from a perspective from her family heritage and multicultural upbringing. She draws deep on all these facets and elements of her mother’s Hindu faith to explore the countryside in a way that I have not come across before. I really liked it because of that, she is prepared to embrace the activities that she has chosen, whilst still being a touch sceptical about it. It is also a reminder that the natural world is more than just the picturesque, there are thin places that have always had special significance to people over millennia. As an aside, it has an absolutely beautiful cover. If this sort of book interests you, I can also recommend Rising Ground by Philip Marsden, it focuses more on the spiritual legacy left behind in the landscape.
December 18, 2020
In Wanderland, Jini Reddy recounts her year long quest to find magic in the landscape of the UK with visits to labyrinths, tree sculptures, pilgrimage and time in remote places. I enjoyed some of the nature writing and the honesty with which Reddy admits not knowing the names of plants and birds etc and her feelings about that. However, at times I found Reddy quite jarring - she frequently refers to how she feels "other" in the landscape but I found that hard to reconcile with the judgmental attitude she seemed to convey with regards to her fellow travellers along the way and how easily she appeared to take umbrage. She may not be so intolerant in real life but some of her writing came across that way and that tarnished the reading experience for me at least.
Read
April 11, 2021Would have thought this would be right up my street. It is not. Very personal mystical memoir which will either ring your bell or it won't.
June 25, 2021
I squirmed through 35 pages of this book before deciding to give up. I was hoping for a book about nature and exploration, perhaps the spiritual journey indicated on the cover. I live in Devon, so one of the first journeys that we join Reddy on is a trip to the South West to a "Labyrinth". I learned more than I wanted to about the author, no big problem there necessarily. But I also learned that the trains and countryside are considered novel and "deep South" (actual quote) and that essentially we are all grey-haired, Sun-reading racists like the pair Reddy silently judges on the train but never actually engages in conversation. (Also, just have a Google search for the "Labyrinth" that Reddy visits and you'll wonder, as I did, with all of the glorious places to go in the South West, let alone the rest of the country, why she spends quite so much energy talking about a field and an Air BnB stay).
I don't like to give up on a book, but I just could not continue on this stumble-around description of "anywhere-but-London" as being 'quaint', whilst desperately trying not to use the word 'quaint'. You can feel it there just below the surface though.
The writing seems to be good fodder for the author's urban dinner parties, but had no sense of actual appreciation of Nature or the country we all share. Maybe it changed later in the book, but there was nothing to make me want to keep reading.
I don't like to give up on a book, but I just could not continue on this stumble-around description of "anywhere-but-London" as being 'quaint', whilst desperately trying not to use the word 'quaint'. You can feel it there just below the surface though.
The writing seems to be good fodder for the author's urban dinner parties, but had no sense of actual appreciation of Nature or the country we all share. Maybe it changed later in the book, but there was nothing to make me want to keep reading.
September 30, 2020
2.5
I normally love the books that get on the Wainwright Prize short list but this was hugely disappointing and way below the usual high standard.
The book sounded really interesting but I quickly worked out that it was basically a very self indulgent Vanity Project.
Nothing happens for the simple reason that Reddy is searching for something that doesn't exist. And the sad part is, I think she knows full well it doesn't exist even as she traipses judgementally around the country on her fruitless 'search'.
I normally love the books that get on the Wainwright Prize short list but this was hugely disappointing and way below the usual high standard.
The book sounded really interesting but I quickly worked out that it was basically a very self indulgent Vanity Project.
Nothing happens for the simple reason that Reddy is searching for something that doesn't exist. And the sad part is, I think she knows full well it doesn't exist even as she traipses judgementally around the country on her fruitless 'search'.
April 16, 2021
So many thoughts about this book.. I had been looking forward to reading this for so long ever since I heard about it last year but it was not at all what I expected.
This is not a cohesive review but a random collection of notes I made while reading..
She appears rather paranoid - thinking that everyone is staring at her all the time. Could it be just her subconscious craving for attention as I doubt everyone is finding her that fascinating?
She seems very close minded. She says she is trying to connect with the land. She says she has a deep respect and fascination and empathy for other ways of seeing and experiencing the land but dismisses and looks down on every avenue without exploring or in some cases even attempting to.
Do we really need to know about her masturbating on a mountain? It's not at all relevant.
So much of this book is extremely and fundamentally contradictory. She tells people she feels a connection to the land and yet on several occasions we read that she feels no connection. There's an extraordinary lack of credibility in the authors voice.
While I am always conscious of white privilege and the abhorrent nature of racism, I gain the impression that Reddy has some kind of internal bias or obscure perception that everyone she encounters is racist. This is totally unrealistic and rather a skewed perception of others..
No explanation of why she seems so unwilling to spend time - everything must come instantly. There is no fast fix, no attempt to really explore or experience the sites she visits on this socalled spiritual journey, Appears very halfhearted.
Strange ideas - if she dines in a bar she will have to dine somewhere else the next night.WHY?? is she behaving in a way that will mean she'd be unwelcome?Is she perhaps displaying the condescending attitude we have spied traces of? Anti social , hostility,She moans about other people not engaging her and the fact that she does not have a partner(yawn yawn cliche)but she is often moody and wishing people would go away when they are trying to be friendly.Her deliberate separation is not going to foster and sense of belonging and community which author states she wishes to find.
It was interesting to hear about the people she encounters and their activity but sadly this only skims the surface. She never stays long - often a few hours to a day and is reluctant to try things more than once. To this reader it feels as if the author is not really interested and has just extended a magazine article to book length in order to generate extra income.
This is not a cohesive review but a random collection of notes I made while reading..
She appears rather paranoid - thinking that everyone is staring at her all the time. Could it be just her subconscious craving for attention as I doubt everyone is finding her that fascinating?
She seems very close minded. She says she is trying to connect with the land. She says she has a deep respect and fascination and empathy for other ways of seeing and experiencing the land but dismisses and looks down on every avenue without exploring or in some cases even attempting to.
Do we really need to know about her masturbating on a mountain? It's not at all relevant.
So much of this book is extremely and fundamentally contradictory. She tells people she feels a connection to the land and yet on several occasions we read that she feels no connection. There's an extraordinary lack of credibility in the authors voice.
While I am always conscious of white privilege and the abhorrent nature of racism, I gain the impression that Reddy has some kind of internal bias or obscure perception that everyone she encounters is racist. This is totally unrealistic and rather a skewed perception of others..
No explanation of why she seems so unwilling to spend time - everything must come instantly. There is no fast fix, no attempt to really explore or experience the sites she visits on this socalled spiritual journey, Appears very halfhearted.
Strange ideas - if she dines in a bar she will have to dine somewhere else the next night.WHY?? is she behaving in a way that will mean she'd be unwelcome?Is she perhaps displaying the condescending attitude we have spied traces of? Anti social , hostility,She moans about other people not engaging her and the fact that she does not have a partner(yawn yawn cliche)but she is often moody and wishing people would go away when they are trying to be friendly.Her deliberate separation is not going to foster and sense of belonging and community which author states she wishes to find.
It was interesting to hear about the people she encounters and their activity but sadly this only skims the surface. She never stays long - often a few hours to a day and is reluctant to try things more than once. To this reader it feels as if the author is not really interested and has just extended a magazine article to book length in order to generate extra income.
June 15, 2020
OK to start off with, it was going to be 3 stars until the last chapter, when it just sort of stopped with no conclusion. That's the sort of thing that annoys me! The premise is that Reddy is looking for "the magic in the landscape". She doesn't define this because she doesn't really know herself. Not a great start. The writing is actually really good very readable. If Reddy wasn't such a good writer I doubt this would be published, in fact actually I reckon if this had been written by a total unknown, there would be no hope for it. It doesn't really have a plot, lots of disjointed anecdotes and no real conclusion except a vague "I should really listen more and be nicer to people". I was thinking that all along as she came across super judgemental of others and dismissive of the esoteric things she was supposedly looking for. Needless to say, I was pretty underwhelmed. One plus side though, it was interesting to read of her concerns in rural places as a POC and a reminder of how we can still do a lot better in the rural UK to be inclusive and make everyone feel welcome here.
December 23, 2020
This is a 2 1/2 star book, which, in common with many other readers, I have mixed feelings about.
At the heart of the book is the author's quest to find out more about the mystic heritage of Great Britain. So I was really interested to learn more about various places connected with nature and spiritual heritage (having read the excellent Braiding Sweetgrass I was interested to read more about my own country).
However, I learned only small amounts about this and a lot more about the author than I wanted. What she did impart about the mysticism and magic of Britain was interesting, but there was a lot more about her own issues than I really needed to read about - often it was quite repetitive which spoilt the book for me.
Interesting concept, but not as good as it should have been.
At the heart of the book is the author's quest to find out more about the mystic heritage of Great Britain. So I was really interested to learn more about various places connected with nature and spiritual heritage (having read the excellent Braiding Sweetgrass I was interested to read more about my own country).
However, I learned only small amounts about this and a lot more about the author than I wanted. What she did impart about the mysticism and magic of Britain was interesting, but there was a lot more about her own issues than I really needed to read about - often it was quite repetitive which spoilt the book for me.
Interesting concept, but not as good as it should have been.
July 23, 2021
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book. My opinions are my own.
I was very excited to read this book. I love nature and have always been interested in the (magical) history of ancient places, of which there are many in the UK. To read a personal story of a young woman discovering more about these places in search of magic, seemed like something right up my alley. Unfortunately I couldn't connect with the author. Personally I felt like she kept saying she had an open mind, but her actions said otherwise.
This book unfortunately wasn't for me.
I was very excited to read this book. I love nature and have always been interested in the (magical) history of ancient places, of which there are many in the UK. To read a personal story of a young woman discovering more about these places in search of magic, seemed like something right up my alley. Unfortunately I couldn't connect with the author. Personally I felt like she kept saying she had an open mind, but her actions said otherwise.
This book unfortunately wasn't for me.
June 1, 2020
I'm of two minds about this book. There's enough in this that is interesting and worth it to find good things to evaluate, but there was a self-indulgent, and sometimes almost judgemental tone to some of her comments - about those she was travelling with at least one point, which soured the book somewhat for me.
April 26, 2020
I was really looking forward to reading this ARC, and perhaps from the preview I had over hyped the book, as I’m sorry to report i was disappointed. It is a collection of musings of her travels seeking spiritual connection with her surroundings, her upbringing and how it has influenced her and her approach to life.
Throughout the musings I found it quite self-indulgent, over critical of her hosts and co-travellers and seeking resolution or a state of mind that I am not sure she knows what she is looking for?
From the book description the book it shares ‘is a paean to the joy of roaming, both figuratively and imaginatively, and to the joy of finding your place in the world.’ This is a good description perhaps I needed to roam in and out of the book too. It’s descriptive, follows an unorthodox path to her wild places but I wasn’t able to be ‘with her’ I felt she was frustrated, perhaps the process of writing this will help find her way?
Throughout the musings I found it quite self-indulgent, over critical of her hosts and co-travellers and seeking resolution or a state of mind that I am not sure she knows what she is looking for?
From the book description the book it shares ‘is a paean to the joy of roaming, both figuratively and imaginatively, and to the joy of finding your place in the world.’ This is a good description perhaps I needed to roam in and out of the book too. It’s descriptive, follows an unorthodox path to her wild places but I wasn’t able to be ‘with her’ I felt she was frustrated, perhaps the process of writing this will help find her way?
July 16, 2020
I came to know about this book from Jen Campbell 's Youtube channel. I had thought it would be something like Robert Macfarlane' s Underland, so I had a different expectation and had to re-configure my thoughts. I started out a bit sceptical about the whole spirituality of the experiences but gradually realised that I had been the same kind of person once - open to the world, but had somewhere down the years become completely 'practical'. As I started to let go, my enjoyment of the book increased and I remembered some of my own 'connected' feelings with my surroundings. In a coracle, floating past the huge rock formations of Hampi or standing in the middle of the silent ruins with no one else in sight, or amidst the tall trees of Jaldapara forest, or the pelting rain across the Western Ghats, one does feel a sense of something else. Jini Reddy reminded me of that part of myself. I also found it very interesting - her consciousness of being brown, in a white majority place even though that is the land of her birth, her incipient fears of being different. Her descriptions are lyrical, the language never falters and it is heartening to find that there are so many people who rely on the more 'other' side of themselves,in todays machine filled world.
January 10, 2022
I wanted to like this. I really did. I'd been looking forward to reading it. It included sections on two places I have visited and loved - Glastonbury and Lindisfarne.
But I didn't like it. I found the author whiny and annoying, constantly looking for slights, frequently dissatisfied with travelling companions and hosts who won't do what she wants or react the way she wants them to.
Two that spring to mind in particular - that poor woman in Herefordshire who agrees to put her up for a few days - the author basically spends the whole time sulking because her host won't train her as a shaman in two days flat, but takes her to a Stone Age site which she fails to appreciate because she's still sulking. Then her poor friend who is suffering from cancer - they have a massive row because the friend fails to appreciate Lindisfarne in the right way. Probably because she has cancer. Even the author admits she was a bit unfair on that occasion.
Some bits I'd describe frankly as absolute twaddle. And that's before I even get on to her attempt to "couple with the earth". TMI.
Big disappointment.
But I didn't like it. I found the author whiny and annoying, constantly looking for slights, frequently dissatisfied with travelling companions and hosts who won't do what she wants or react the way she wants them to.
Two that spring to mind in particular - that poor woman in Herefordshire who agrees to put her up for a few days - the author basically spends the whole time sulking because her host won't train her as a shaman in two days flat, but takes her to a Stone Age site which she fails to appreciate because she's still sulking. Then her poor friend who is suffering from cancer - they have a massive row because the friend fails to appreciate Lindisfarne in the right way. Probably because she has cancer. Even the author admits she was a bit unfair on that occasion.
Some bits I'd describe frankly as absolute twaddle. And that's before I even get on to her attempt to "couple with the earth". TMI.
Big disappointment.
January 10, 2021
Review is on my blog as it has pictures I can't put on here. https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2021...
July 29, 2020
Jini Reddy has often felt like a nomad and an outsider. Raised in London and Montreal by Indian parents from South Africa, she spent what she calls a “decade of despair” moving between temporary jobs – everything from publishing work to volunteering with Mother Teresa. Looking back, she sees that what she was searching for in her years as a wanderer was a spiritual connection to nature. Through a year of making trips to holy sites, whether famous or obscure, she seeks to become rooted in the country she has come to call home. The quest takes her all over the British Isles. Recovering a sense of reverence for nature can only help in the long-term mission to preserve it. (Reddy is the first person of colour nominated for the Wainwright Prize in its seven-year history.)
See my full review at Shiny New Books.
See my full review at Shiny New Books.
July 5, 2020
How do you come to this book? or how does this book come to you? For me it was like being approached by a dog wagging its tail but slightly turning its head away as if I were about to hit it, like it was pleased to see me but afraid of pain, like it was being drawn to something it knew would hurt it.
So where do we begin on this confused and unsatisfying book? First off we have the author, a person of Indian heritage, brown skin, in a land, England, that is run by whites. She doesn’t feel part of this land, she never grew up here, has none of the cultural references that others seem to have and seldom feels welcome amongst strangers. And what is she doing here, in this book? She is seeking the magic in the landscape. Something she never seems actually achieve.
At times I found it frustrating and annoying, like a teenage angst novel but other times completely heartfelt in her apparent rejection by the land she is living in.
There was one scene where she goes to place in Wales where a team of people have been resurrecting/restoring/creating something, let’s call them a bunch of greenies and she appears in their midst after they have bonded as a group. Her entrance, a brown skinned Indian girl pulling a red suitcase on wheels, doesn’t engender cries of welcome, or even “who are you?” She feels the lack of a backpack is just the beginning of why she will never fit in.
As a person of “strangeness” I could completely empathise with her having been in many such situations myself. By strangeness all I mean is being unlike the people you find yourself with. Having said that she never actually seemed to make any effort to overcome or bridge that gap. Alot of the time I felt that alienation went both ways, the greenies probably felt alienated as much as her its just they had the numbers. A lot of people do not know how to address "other" in people.
At heart, I felt that she had never really come to terms with herself as a brown skinned Indian girl in England and therefore everywhere she went she seems doomed to experience that alienation?
She details her many wanderings across the land looking for this “magic in the landscape” all of which seem to amount to a series of disappointments in one form or another. I was very tempted to give it up and go on to read something more rewarding but I stuck it out in the hope that she would indeed find this magic and experience the climax of this search and enjoy the spiritual and emotional resolution this would bring. Indeed, seeing how many were left in the book I assumed that was what was in store. But no, the remainder of the book was an index and other stuff. I felt cheated out of an ending that I felt this book needed let alone deserved.
In lots of ways I felt a better book would have been exploring the alienation she feels in this land and coming to terms with her place in it, because she definitely has one.
So where do we begin on this confused and unsatisfying book? First off we have the author, a person of Indian heritage, brown skin, in a land, England, that is run by whites. She doesn’t feel part of this land, she never grew up here, has none of the cultural references that others seem to have and seldom feels welcome amongst strangers. And what is she doing here, in this book? She is seeking the magic in the landscape. Something she never seems actually achieve.
At times I found it frustrating and annoying, like a teenage angst novel but other times completely heartfelt in her apparent rejection by the land she is living in.
There was one scene where she goes to place in Wales where a team of people have been resurrecting/restoring/creating something, let’s call them a bunch of greenies and she appears in their midst after they have bonded as a group. Her entrance, a brown skinned Indian girl pulling a red suitcase on wheels, doesn’t engender cries of welcome, or even “who are you?” She feels the lack of a backpack is just the beginning of why she will never fit in.
As a person of “strangeness” I could completely empathise with her having been in many such situations myself. By strangeness all I mean is being unlike the people you find yourself with. Having said that she never actually seemed to make any effort to overcome or bridge that gap. Alot of the time I felt that alienation went both ways, the greenies probably felt alienated as much as her its just they had the numbers. A lot of people do not know how to address "other" in people.
At heart, I felt that she had never really come to terms with herself as a brown skinned Indian girl in England and therefore everywhere she went she seems doomed to experience that alienation?
She details her many wanderings across the land looking for this “magic in the landscape” all of which seem to amount to a series of disappointments in one form or another. I was very tempted to give it up and go on to read something more rewarding but I stuck it out in the hope that she would indeed find this magic and experience the climax of this search and enjoy the spiritual and emotional resolution this would bring. Indeed, seeing how many were left in the book I assumed that was what was in store. But no, the remainder of the book was an index and other stuff. I felt cheated out of an ending that I felt this book needed let alone deserved.
In lots of ways I felt a better book would have been exploring the alienation she feels in this land and coming to terms with her place in it, because she definitely has one.
August 2, 2020
I have mixed feelings about this book. The subject matter is interesting and I enjoy an element of the spiritual in books at times. It was also refreshing to read a sort of travel book by a woman as many I've read are by men. I say sort of travel as it's a mix of travel around the UK, nature, and spiritual quest. I thought it would involve more actual nature writing which is partly why I picked it up. I also felt the style of writing was easy to read and this was enjoyable.
However I found it quite repetitive - most chapters involve the author going to a place that is in some way spiritual/magical, wandering about, not feeling much, and mostly being disappointed although there are a few occasions when she experiences something. There also wasn't very much of a conclusion, just a few sentences at the end of the last chapter. In this way it may have worked better as a long essay rather than stretching it to an entire book.
The author also frequently turns up in places for a few days without a plan but then gets annoyed that people don't want to meet with her or help her out - which to me is to be expected if you haven't arranged anything in advance so I got a bit fed up with this when it happened several times.
She discusses feeling "other" a lot due to her background which I felt was a good way to connect to the "other" side of the landscape and I liked this link. However she never acknowledges the fact that she is in some way privileged as she can keep going off on trips away for days at a time, and most people can't afford that kind of thing so it would have been good to see it acknowledged at some point.
There were lots of sections I enjoyed and they have inspired me to read on around some of the subjects, and I probably would pick up what she writes in future as I found her an approachable and honest narrator.
However I found it quite repetitive - most chapters involve the author going to a place that is in some way spiritual/magical, wandering about, not feeling much, and mostly being disappointed although there are a few occasions when she experiences something. There also wasn't very much of a conclusion, just a few sentences at the end of the last chapter. In this way it may have worked better as a long essay rather than stretching it to an entire book.
The author also frequently turns up in places for a few days without a plan but then gets annoyed that people don't want to meet with her or help her out - which to me is to be expected if you haven't arranged anything in advance so I got a bit fed up with this when it happened several times.
She discusses feeling "other" a lot due to her background which I felt was a good way to connect to the "other" side of the landscape and I liked this link. However she never acknowledges the fact that she is in some way privileged as she can keep going off on trips away for days at a time, and most people can't afford that kind of thing so it would have been good to see it acknowledged at some point.
There were lots of sections I enjoyed and they have inspired me to read on around some of the subjects, and I probably would pick up what she writes in future as I found her an approachable and honest narrator.
May 30, 2020
I really wanted to love this book, she has a wonderfully down to earth and readable style; however it should have been titled "Jini Finds Things Underwhelming". I found myself totally gripped by her beautiful and vivid descriptions of the places she DID like whilst finding her attitude towards some people and places rather irksome.
May 31, 2021
I was intrigued by the premise of the book: reconnecting with the land to find the magic in the landscape and experiencing transcendence. The author had a real yearning to find a place where she belonged and felt connected to, which seemed like a reasonable goal in today’s busy virtual world.
However, the progress towards that goal was continually sabotaged by the author herself. Reddy found plenty of fascinating people to talk to and beautiful places to go. I was enjoying her descriptions, but then she became suddenly self-conscious and dully introspective or just got bored and stopped paying attention. On to the next thing.
Conjuring the landscape in the minds of readers is difficult if you have no interest in the names of plants, birds and insects and finding inner peace is difficult if you keep getting bored and wandering off. A great premise for a book with sometimes frustrating execution.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.
However, the progress towards that goal was continually sabotaged by the author herself. Reddy found plenty of fascinating people to talk to and beautiful places to go. I was enjoying her descriptions, but then she became suddenly self-conscious and dully introspective or just got bored and stopped paying attention. On to the next thing.
Conjuring the landscape in the minds of readers is difficult if you have no interest in the names of plants, birds and insects and finding inner peace is difficult if you keep getting bored and wandering off. A great premise for a book with sometimes frustrating execution.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.
May 9, 2022
Reddy does some thoughtful meditation on quests --on how serendipitous happenings and meetings lead to other discoveries or on how the weather or the company turns the journey awry. This hunt for "magic in the landscape" turns up some fun stuff like David Nashs's tree-art, his Wooden Boulder and Ash Dome. She writes with a conversational style, which is both a strength and weakness. On one hand, it's engaging that she presents her self as a vulnerable human; one the other, she makes some judgements and generalizations that you can get away with among friends but you should think through before you put them into print.
August 26, 2022
Too esoteric to my liking. I read this for my PhD project, but it's not really useless. Protagonist wanders around various places, searching for whatever she is missing, goddesses of the Earth or whatnot. Really not my cup of tea, annoyed me immensely. I mean the title could've been a clue but I thought about how magical nature is, not what weird nonsense capitalisatic exploitation of deities or whatnot can be crammed into a place. Sorry. 2 stars
July 20, 2023
Fab to have some nature writing from someone not in the male, pale and stale category. Nice alternative way to explore niche journeys and places across the UK, even if I did feel there was little 'through-line'. Reads more as a series of distinct essays.
October 16, 2021
There was much that I liked about this book, but I would have liked Reddy to have been a little less superficial when engaging with the places she visited.
(Longer review to follow I hope. )
(Longer review to follow I hope. )
August 13, 2025
3 green stars.
I really wanted to like this more than I did. Britain - check. Natural world - check. Spirituality - check. Mysticism - check. Wainwright nominee - check. I'll give it 3 stars for the effort made. For the quest itself. And she is a good enough writer. However, I found her constant chip on the shoulder attitude and her judgmentalism to be off-putting. She didn't seem to know what she wanted. Just wander around to random "sacred" sites, and expect to be moved, to be spoken to, to be somehow changed by the experience. After a year of doing this, what had she learned? Was she perhaps a little more willing to listen and observe, to be open to serendipity, to be open to others the way she wanted them to open to her? Maybe. I will say there was a certain humor in many of her observations. And of course, I want to follow in her footsteps and see all these places for myself - Lindisfarne, Iona, Stonehenge, and St. Michael's Mount. And I can identify with going to a place with certain expectations, and then to feel - nothing. So perhaps I'm being a bit too judgmental myself.
Description: A London journalist with multicultural roots determinedly sets off around the country in pursuit of the Other and a connection to Britain's captivating natural world. Where might this lead? And if you know what it is to be Othered yourself, how might this color your experiences? And what if, in invoking the spirit of the land, 'it' decides to make its presence felt? Whether following a 'cult' map to a hidden well that refuses to reveal itself, attempting to persuade a labyrinth to spill its secrets, embarking on a coast-to-coast pilgrimage or searching for a mystical land temple, Jini depicts a whimsical, natural Britain. Along the way, she tracks down ephemeral wild art, encounters women who worship The Goddess, falls deeper in love with her birth land and struggles – but mostly fails – to get to grips with its lore. Throughout, she rejoices in the wildness we cannot see and celebrates the natural beauty we can, while offering glimpses of her Canadian childhood and her Indian parents' struggles in apartheid-era South Africa.
I really wanted to like this more than I did. Britain - check. Natural world - check. Spirituality - check. Mysticism - check. Wainwright nominee - check. I'll give it 3 stars for the effort made. For the quest itself. And she is a good enough writer. However, I found her constant chip on the shoulder attitude and her judgmentalism to be off-putting. She didn't seem to know what she wanted. Just wander around to random "sacred" sites, and expect to be moved, to be spoken to, to be somehow changed by the experience. After a year of doing this, what had she learned? Was she perhaps a little more willing to listen and observe, to be open to serendipity, to be open to others the way she wanted them to open to her? Maybe. I will say there was a certain humor in many of her observations. And of course, I want to follow in her footsteps and see all these places for myself - Lindisfarne, Iona, Stonehenge, and St. Michael's Mount. And I can identify with going to a place with certain expectations, and then to feel - nothing. So perhaps I'm being a bit too judgmental myself.
Description: A London journalist with multicultural roots determinedly sets off around the country in pursuit of the Other and a connection to Britain's captivating natural world. Where might this lead? And if you know what it is to be Othered yourself, how might this color your experiences? And what if, in invoking the spirit of the land, 'it' decides to make its presence felt? Whether following a 'cult' map to a hidden well that refuses to reveal itself, attempting to persuade a labyrinth to spill its secrets, embarking on a coast-to-coast pilgrimage or searching for a mystical land temple, Jini depicts a whimsical, natural Britain. Along the way, she tracks down ephemeral wild art, encounters women who worship The Goddess, falls deeper in love with her birth land and struggles – but mostly fails – to get to grips with its lore. Throughout, she rejoices in the wildness we cannot see and celebrates the natural beauty we can, while offering glimpses of her Canadian childhood and her Indian parents' struggles in apartheid-era South Africa.
July 28, 2024
didn’t dnf this, because I wanted to know if there would be a glimpse of reckoning by the author how utterly she failed in achieving anything of the things she sets out at the start of the book. But I still don’t know really. There are hints in the last chapter that she realises what an self-serving narcissist bore she is, but this could also be by accident, because she is so self-obsessed and smug about her purported discovery of the magical in the landscape, she might not even be aware how she sounds to other people.
I started the book because I thought this would be an interesting and thoughtful discussion about the exclusionary and sometimes openly reactionary and structurally racist aspects of the very English art of nature writing, especially its neo-pagan and esoteric strands. In a way, Reddy does this, but the almost funny thing is, that she never ever questions any of the tenets of this whole nature mystical discourse, if she can be bothered to really do some thinking about it (she mostly „learns“ anything about the places she’s visiting by vibing with one of the always white local counter-culture celebrities, but without trying very hard to really understand what they‘re telling here or calling them out on their bullshit). It’s not her mythology, so she should not have to read up on it or try to get a grip on it, seems to be her argument, but then she never seems to have the urge to get informed on anything, except on collecting phone numbers and email addresses of important people. She makes a lot about her Indian-South African heritage, while simultaneously acknowledging that she practically knows nothing about the culture and religious practices of her mother (who practices some form of Hinduism). What Reddy seems mad about is not white upper class privilege on the magical landscape of Britain, but that she’s not in on it. And obviously this book is her passport to claiming that she belongs there too, not primarily in nature, but in a very English upper class form of using nature as an identity marker and cultural asset.
I started the book because I thought this would be an interesting and thoughtful discussion about the exclusionary and sometimes openly reactionary and structurally racist aspects of the very English art of nature writing, especially its neo-pagan and esoteric strands. In a way, Reddy does this, but the almost funny thing is, that she never ever questions any of the tenets of this whole nature mystical discourse, if she can be bothered to really do some thinking about it (she mostly „learns“ anything about the places she’s visiting by vibing with one of the always white local counter-culture celebrities, but without trying very hard to really understand what they‘re telling here or calling them out on their bullshit). It’s not her mythology, so she should not have to read up on it or try to get a grip on it, seems to be her argument, but then she never seems to have the urge to get informed on anything, except on collecting phone numbers and email addresses of important people. She makes a lot about her Indian-South African heritage, while simultaneously acknowledging that she practically knows nothing about the culture and religious practices of her mother (who practices some form of Hinduism). What Reddy seems mad about is not white upper class privilege on the magical landscape of Britain, but that she’s not in on it. And obviously this book is her passport to claiming that she belongs there too, not primarily in nature, but in a very English upper class form of using nature as an identity marker and cultural asset.
June 30, 2020
Wanderland is the story of Jini Reddy's quest for the magical in the British landscape. She can't define what it is that she is looking for, so rather than make a determined search for something specific, she tries to listen to the land and go wherever it leads her.
And so her travels take her from a labyrinth in Cornwall to one on Lindisfarne via a diverse list places such as Hastings, Derbyshire, Iona and Glastonbury. On the way she meets a wide variety of people with an equally wide variety of spiritual beliefs including a British Native Shaman, a tree whisperer and a sighted guide who aids the visually impaired on countryside walks. On a wild camping trip to Heligan, she also meets a friend of mine - it's quite weird when you are reading in bed to find someone you know lurking between the pages!
The whole adventure is underpinned by Jini Reddy's sense of otherness. Born in London to Indian parents but raised in Canada, she has none of the Briton's usual reference points - the myths and legends that connect many of us to the land simply aren't part of her story. As she says herself, she is "too conventional for the pagans, too esoteric for the hardcore wildlife tribe, not deep enough for the deep ecologists, not logical enough for the scientists, not 'listy' enough for the birder types, not enough of a 'green thumb' for the gardeners". So it is with not so much the eyes an outsider but more those of an inhabitant of the liminal spaces that she approaches her journey both geographically and spiritually. Some of the ideas she encounters do verge on the hippy-dippy (in the nicest possible way) but she is open-minded to all the experiences on offer, while retaining a healthy dose of scepticism.
The result is a highly personal account of a meandering journey through the British countryside with the focus on nature and spirituality. Any time spent outdoors or communing with nature is good for the soul, whether it is quietly contemplating a beautiful view, listening to the sea crash on the shore or simply watching the bees beavering away at flowers in the garden. Jini Reddy seems to be looking for something a little bit more than that though, something Other and I'm not sure she's found it yet, but I look forward to reading about it when she does.
And so her travels take her from a labyrinth in Cornwall to one on Lindisfarne via a diverse list places such as Hastings, Derbyshire, Iona and Glastonbury. On the way she meets a wide variety of people with an equally wide variety of spiritual beliefs including a British Native Shaman, a tree whisperer and a sighted guide who aids the visually impaired on countryside walks. On a wild camping trip to Heligan, she also meets a friend of mine - it's quite weird when you are reading in bed to find someone you know lurking between the pages!
The whole adventure is underpinned by Jini Reddy's sense of otherness. Born in London to Indian parents but raised in Canada, she has none of the Briton's usual reference points - the myths and legends that connect many of us to the land simply aren't part of her story. As she says herself, she is "too conventional for the pagans, too esoteric for the hardcore wildlife tribe, not deep enough for the deep ecologists, not logical enough for the scientists, not 'listy' enough for the birder types, not enough of a 'green thumb' for the gardeners". So it is with not so much the eyes an outsider but more those of an inhabitant of the liminal spaces that she approaches her journey both geographically and spiritually. Some of the ideas she encounters do verge on the hippy-dippy (in the nicest possible way) but she is open-minded to all the experiences on offer, while retaining a healthy dose of scepticism.
The result is a highly personal account of a meandering journey through the British countryside with the focus on nature and spirituality. Any time spent outdoors or communing with nature is good for the soul, whether it is quietly contemplating a beautiful view, listening to the sea crash on the shore or simply watching the bees beavering away at flowers in the garden. Jini Reddy seems to be looking for something a little bit more than that though, something Other and I'm not sure she's found it yet, but I look forward to reading about it when she does.
September 30, 2023
I took some good things from this book, like learning more about labyrinths, and seeing some of my favourite places in print, but I found the author's attitude really off-putting and odd at times. She seemed to have this strangely entitled approach to both people and nature - expecting to be shown miracles at the drop of a hat and then becoming petulant when things didn't go exactly to her plan (even falling out with a friend who has cancer because she didn't get excited about wild strawberries whilst on Lindisfarne with the author!).
Also, despite being a journalist and writer, and therefore able, I would guess, to do research in an effective manner, I was baffled that the author also ranted several times about not knowing the myths or flowers of the British Isles because she grew up in Canada. She claimed that this was some kind of barrier to her enjoyment of the countryside and added to her feelings of otherness. I grew up in central London and also don't really know much (at all!) about flowers, but there are so many great apps and books and websites these days that if you *want* to learn something about these topics then you can do so very easily. I have personally found great joy in discovering more about such things - much more so than if I'd remained in ignorance and just stomped around sulking about it, then written a book about nature without so much as consulting a plant identification app?! Weird.
I just found it all a bit strange, and I'm not really sure what point she was ultimately trying to make, and I didn't get the impression she really learned much from her travels, which was a bit of a shame. Sometimes the miracle NOT happening *is* the learning point, y'know?
Also chapters didn't really conclude, they just came to abrupt ends!
Also, despite being a journalist and writer, and therefore able, I would guess, to do research in an effective manner, I was baffled that the author also ranted several times about not knowing the myths or flowers of the British Isles because she grew up in Canada. She claimed that this was some kind of barrier to her enjoyment of the countryside and added to her feelings of otherness. I grew up in central London and also don't really know much (at all!) about flowers, but there are so many great apps and books and websites these days that if you *want* to learn something about these topics then you can do so very easily. I have personally found great joy in discovering more about such things - much more so than if I'd remained in ignorance and just stomped around sulking about it, then written a book about nature without so much as consulting a plant identification app?! Weird.
I just found it all a bit strange, and I'm not really sure what point she was ultimately trying to make, and I didn't get the impression she really learned much from her travels, which was a bit of a shame. Sometimes the miracle NOT happening *is* the learning point, y'know?
Also chapters didn't really conclude, they just came to abrupt ends!
December 19, 2024
Appreciate the author's courage in writing what she really felt and thought, and I think the concept of this book is so cool. But reading the complicated emotions and feelings, often negative at first, when she was exploring new places was a bit surprising and slightly offputting, like reading someone's private journal/inner thoughts, instead of a published book. I suppose the final thoughts captured at the end help illuminate the personal journey she's been on, giving space and voice to all parts of herself, etc. So, I do sincerely appreciate the vulnerability. But sometimes it seemed like she was disappointed and frustrated if experiences (people, places, etc) didn't exactly conform to what she expected, which seems at odds with meeting the land and all it holds where it's at, being open to all the connections and magic etc (and sometimes seemed a bit petulant tbh). But overall, I did enjoy reading about the variety of adventures she experienced, and it's renewed my passion for looking for the magic and connections all around us. So for that I'm grateful.
February 9, 2022
An interesting read with many curious elements. The subtitle says it all really; a search for magic in the landscape. I wanted to like this more than I actually did. Jinni Reddy comes from a more multicultural background than most nature writers and maybe her abrasive tone was due to the fact that she identifies so strongly as "other" and an outsider, but it felt like she leapt to conclusions about others a little too frequently. As someone whose heritage is white, anglo Saxon, I have no right to judge or pass comment but somehow the writing did not feel welcoming to the reader just as Jinni seems to have this sense that she is not always welcome in certain places because of her ethnicity. Still, the book is well worth reading if you have an interest in that spiritual, magical sense some places seem to contain and interesting and rewarding to read someone whose experience is very different to my own.
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