Reviews

Hidden Nature: A Voyage of Discovery by Alys Fowler

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5tarbuck's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

kazza27's review

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4.0

Hidden Nature by Alys Fowler
4 out of 5 stars.
Nominated for the Wainwright Prize this book was our Book Group Choice at Crediton Community Bookshop.
Alys Fowler who writes a column for the Guardian is also an adventurer and has been since a child. This adventurous nature takes her on a journey through the waterways of Birmingham but also takes her through a personal journey as she sets off in her inflatable kayak.
I really enjoyed the descriptive nature of the book especially learning about the History of the Canals and the writing about the nature that she encounters on her travels.
Throughout the book Alys’s life changes dramatically and she writes emotionally and in detail about the breakup of her relationship and the embarking of a new life. Which is interweaved with her journey’s in her boat.
I read very little non- fiction, but this was an easy read and interesting with plenty of detail to keep the reader interested.
For me Alys’s writing about gardening and nature was the part that stood out for me and I will look for more of her books regarding her gardening.

bobthebard's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

nitroglycerin's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

2.75

georgina_bawden's review

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2.0

This was meh. The author doesn't write much of substance about either her discovery she is a lesbian or the natural world. The former goes uninterrogated, focusing rather on her experience of the emotional fallout of her divorce. The latter serves only to act as metaphor for the former. It's underwhelming. She also seems like an exhausting person - I imagine going through this kind of life event would make you kind of insufferable for a while and your friends and family would just put up with it out of love whilst you ploughed through, but boy is it hard to read. She also comes off as mad posh, and with really uninspiring writing (she "howls" basically every other chapter and it started to grind my gears - see also how all beer is described as "hoppy" every time. Hoppy beer. We drank a hoppy beer. The taste of hops. Fuck OFF). The metaphors joining the canals and the uninspiring nature there found (she described several trips as boring but goes on to describe them anyway) are very limp.

This should have been an essay at best.

foggy_rosamund's review

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2.0

Alys Fowler writes beautifully about nature, particularly the minutiae of small plants, such as moss and lichens, and how they survive. Her writing is clear and precise as she gets across scientific concepts. This, however, is the strongest part of a book that strives to do a lot more. Fowler sets out to write about her journeys on the canals of Birmingham, and in doing so, to explore the end of her relationship with her husband following her realisation that she is a lesbian. It's hard to engage with the emotional side of the book, as Fowler is so circumspect in her description. She writes so narrowly about her relationships that it's hard to get an impression of how she feels or anything of the character of her partner. Because of this, the book falls flat: it feels as though Fowler is struggling to write about something that is too personal for her to want to express publicly. Her writing is caged and cramped by this. Her exploration of the canals is described in much more depth, but the industrial landscapes are very similar to one another, and the descriptions of the canals begin to feel repetitive. I felt this might have worked better as a long article about canals and the plants that grow in industrial landscapes, rather than as a whole book.