Categories: uncategorized
Date: 23 February 2006 10:36:51
I've just finished reading one of my birthday presents, a book called The River, by TV presenter Phillipa Forester. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time, and details the trials and tribulations of Phillipa's move out of London with her partner, a wildlife cameraman, to a house on the River Tipple in the Gloucester countryside, and the growing love affair with the wildlife of the river. On discovering a family of otters also living on the river, which, to anyone who knows how much this species has declined in recent years, is nothing short of incredible, they successfully apply for a commission to film the river for the BBC, recording the comings and goings of its various inhabitants, and the book follows the successes (and failures) of their project.
This is a such a special book which again reminded me of the great loss I always feel on finishing a really good book. A well written book makes you feel involved in the storyline, and you build up a friendship with the characters, and an investment in their lives. This is even more pronounced with those recounting actual events happening to real people, and particularly so when you find you identify with the people you're reading about. This story, an account of two peoples shared passion for the wildlife around them, and their determination to record it but also to preserve it, struck a chord with my own ideas and aspirations. I'm sure we all dream of lives we will probably never live, and its these that keep us going. But the dream of a life and a job which are this fulfilling, and which bring such pleasure and excitement, that's the kind of dream I can hold on to, and strive to make it happen.
PS. I heard about my thesis result the other day, and don't have a specific mark, but I got a distinction :D :D :D (vv happy folkie)