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About the Author

Includes the name: Will Ashon (author)

Obras de Will Ashon

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Sexo
male

Membros

Resenhas

Surprised that I enjoyed this unusual book as much as I did.
As you will have seen from other reviews, the contents seek to create a portrait of contemporary Britain told through the testimonies of its inhabitants. Will Ashon collected voices between October 2018 and March 2021 - people talking about their lives, needs, dreams, loves, hopes and fears - all of them with some connection to the British Isles. He used a range of methods including letters sent to random addresses, hitchhiking, referrals from strangers and so on. He conducted the interviews in person, on the phone, over the internet or asked people to record themselves. Interview techniques ranged from asking people to tell him a secret to choosing an arbitrary question from a list.

The result is necessarily uneven, and no one particularly makes original statements, but that variety is one of the book’s strengths, together with the humour in some of the sections. It’s an enjoyable read, naturally easy to dip in and out of, and it makes you think (well me, anyway).
It’s the pleasure of the mental journey.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
CarltonC | Oct 27, 2022 |
Inconsistent and overlong, but there's several fascinating people and topics explored here - looking at the outsiders who've made Epping Forest their home over the centuries. Reminded me of Geoff Dyer and W.G. Sebald in parts, but Ashon is not quite on par with either as a writer so several parts really drag on.

Saying that, the stuff about the anti road building activists in the 80s/90s was genuinely exciting and never knew how complicated Jacob Epstein's lovelife was. Got me listening to Crass again too, which is always a big positive.… (mais)
 
Marcado
arewenotben | outras 2 resenhas | Jul 31, 2020 |
Epping Forest is an ancient forest of 6,000 acres in area, stretching between Forest Gate and Epping. It is around 19 miles long and approximately 2.5 miles wide, reaching from the urban sprawl of Walthamstow to the edge of Essex. It has been covered with trees since Neolithic times, became a Royal forest in the 12th Century and is London’s largest open space. It is into this litter-strewn green lung that Will Ashon heads, not totally sure of who or what he may discover, but he knows that some of the secrets contained in the woods will reveal themselves.

With him, we will discover well-known characters from times long gone, the infamous highway man Dick Turpin was an elusive resident, the sculptor Jacob Epstein spent a lot of time in the area and Ashon tries to make sense of his complicated relationships. There is, of course, the Royal influence that still permeates the forest, and I hadn’t realised that the City of London, a slightly sinister organisation with a fair amount of influence, are the owners and managers of the forest. There are lots of other people that have sought the tranquillity of the woods. Most have never been on the public’s radar and as Ashon ventures to parts of the forest he hasn’t been to, he sees the traces that they have left; crashed cars, initials scratched into the bark of trees and remembers the deceased that have been found there. He decides after a long period of time to have another go at climbing trees, finding that the ancient pollards offer the best opportunity for ascending into the canopy. To discover himself, is he going to be able to be brave enough to stay a night in the forest?

This is unlike any book about a landscape that I have read recently; it has a certain rawness and vulnerability to it as Ashon faces his fears. Most natural history books see the localities they are writing about through a romanticised lens; he’s not afraid to write about the ugly and unsightly things that have happened in the forest as much as the beautiful elements. There is plenty of history within the covers too, these stories are teased out and put in a modern context and his interviews with those that have sat on the fringes of society are enlightening as they are interesting. It was well worth scrabbling through the understorey with Ashon to discover the ghosts of the past, the sounds of the present and the possibilities of the future of Epping Forest.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
PDCRead | outras 2 resenhas | Apr 6, 2020 |
A great ramble through Epping Forest - accompanied by rebels, misfits, political activists, punk musicians, poets and the odd highwayman. The week of the book launch Will Ashon led a event that walked some of the forests paths, then paused and either retold some of the myth / stories from the book or read key sections in situ. This definitely effected my reading of the book (positively!) , so much so that twice this week, I've hopped on the train and retraced our steps across the forest walking and reading this book. The biggest character though isn't the forest, it is Ashon himself - his fear of dogs, of trespassing, of being caught, of not doing the right thing, of getting hurt, of falling, of being ridiculed, of being fond out, of failing, all endear him and connect him to he reader as a real person, with stuff to work out like we all do!… (mais)
 
Marcado
Mitch1 | outras 2 resenhas | Mar 25, 2018 |

Prêmios

Estatísticas

Obras
8
Membros
95
Popularidade
#197,646
Avaliação
3.1
Resenhas
4
ISBNs
14
Idiomas
1

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