Falling for a dolphin

by heathcote-williams

Hardcover. Very good condition. Signed and dedicated by author to Tom Maschler; 'For Tom who reminded me you should never have anyone between you and the sky, from Heathcote'. First Ed. RB

Genres: Poetry, Animals, Nonfiction, Nature

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Tui Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today, this book arrived in my letterbox, inside a re-used envelope. It had the old address crossed out and my name "Tui" handwritten in large letters. I sat down and read it from cover to cover on the spot and was mesmerised.
I do not know who left it for me. I do not know why they left it.
But I found a hint of why I was meant to read it, in the form of a question nestled there amid the rest of the poetry:
"But where do you think it will lead . . . ?
What can it come to in the end?"
This convinced me that whichever human hand put it in my letterbox, The Universe intended it, because my own story Ripple, answers that question, but only by delving 20 million years in the past and also by peering into the future.
Thank-you whoever you are who left me this book. I will give you a Ripple if you knock on my door next time.

[El Rato Pequeño · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free-verse rhymeless poem recounting the author's brief but emotionally impactful encounter with a dolphin on an Irish coast. A breezy 15-minute mood piece, though at its base it's really more of a recount than a poem - its frequent references to cheap scientific factoids get quite distracting ("The lipids and protein in fish / Now revealed to have a similar structure to cerebral tissue"), but it seems like the idea was to recapture the author's unfiltered thought patterns during the incident, complete with the educated guesswork involved, rather than an attempt to impress with secondary school trivia or to soften the inevitable new-agey aftertaste of the concept.

"Marooned beside a living raft,
And understanding how sea-creatures of the past
Were reputed to beguile sailors,
Persuading them that they were entering a well of forgetfulness -
Unaware that in the sharp bliss of that sea-creature's song
Centuries were passing."

[Phi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay. So this is my mum’s book. I think she got it back in the nineties. It’s just a long poem but it’s really amazing.

Not to be vsco but I love reading about nature (specifically sealife) so this was perfect for me.

I basically started it last year and was reading ten pages a day then stopped. So I read it last night.

It’s such a beautiful book and I can’t wait to read “Whale Nation”!

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lent to me after a trip dolphin watching in Wales, such a beautiful little book

[Lyndsay-ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a neat book, making it an interesting read. I viewed it as a poem as it wasn't a conventional sort of story. It also had some amazing photos of dolphins.

[David Brain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful recollection. The book I buy whenever I see it.