Entries tagged "book review"
2012-09-04
The Wall Street Journal has recently reviewed The Natural Navigator book.
Here is a taster:
"...as the title of his deeply poetic book—"The Natural Navigator"—suggests, there is life after the compass, maps and even GPS. Or, to put it more accurately, there was life before them, and that way of life—in which we orient ourselves by examining the types of clouds in the sky above us or the strength of sea currents beneath our feet or the marks that winds leave in the snow—is worth studying and defending...."
The full review can be read…
2012-06-11
Thanks to everyone who came to my talk at the Hay Festival and to the Festival for inviting me.
The Telegraph, who sponsor Hay Festival, have published some reviews of the talk I gave there about my new book:
Tristan Gooley: The Natural Explorer - Review by Sioned Davies
‘Where would you like go today?’ The rhetorical interrogative which gripped Gooley as a 10-year-old liberated him from the dominance of teachers and parents and was the initial inspiration for his book ‘The Natural Explorer’. All his adventures were no longer fixed; the endless possibilities…
2012-05-11
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In these four pictures we are looking at the same beech tree. See if you can work out which way you are looking in each picture. If you hover your mouse over each picture it should give you the answer.
If it has been a bit quiet on the blog recently, it's because it has been a very busy time for the last…
2012-03-06
The Natural Explorer has just been reviewed in Countryfile Magazine. Five stars:
"Gooley returns with a highly readable and engaging work devoted to the temporarily mislaid art of exploration...it's an inspiring account but also a turning point - perhaps a classic in years to come - because its simple aim is to help you recognise what your senses are telling you.
It's also an object lesson in how to frame a call to action, because this is a book you can't put down until you absolutely have to get out and…
2012-02-27
A great review of The Natural Explorer came out on Friday, which capped a pretty good week.
“The Natural Explorer takes us on a multi-sensory, literary journey intent on heightening awareness of our surroundings. An ambitious combination of Gooley’s own insights and those of countless other writers, explorers and philosophers, this is serious armchair adventuring.” Prospect Magazine
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I spent Thursday morning at the sparkling new headquarters of Ordnance Survey in Southampton. I was fortunate enough to be given a tour of the work they are very busy doing…
2011-06-17
The Natural Navigator Pocket Guide is out now!
Who is this book for? How does it differ from the original book? How big is it? So many questions!
First the jacket blurb, then my take on the book:
'Starting with a simple question – ‘Which way am I looking?’ – Tristan Gooley blends natural science, myth, folklore and the history of travel to introduce you to the rare and ancient art of finding your way using nature’s own sign-posts, from the feel of a rock to the look of the moon.
With…
2011-02-23
There have been a few book reviews in the US recently. Big thanks to those who have reviewed it - Timothy Smith, Clint Thomsen, Sam Edgin, Brad Allen, Randolph and Tillerman - it is great that the word is starting to spread Stateside. The following links go direct to the reviews:
The Washington Post
Amazon.com
The Englewood Review of Books
Bonnevillemariner.com
Proper Course
2010-12-06
There was a 'mini-review' of the book in yesterday's Sunday Times Culture section's seasonal selection of the books of 2010. Here it is in its entirety:‘The best nature writing changes the way you experience the world. Tristan Gooley’s The Natural Navigator will teach you how to find your way using not just the moon, sun and stars but spider’s webs, tennis courts and even ruts on a track. He throws in entertaining anecdotes from the history of navigation and from his own impressive Atlantic journeys, but really he’s giving you an addictive hobby, and a newly refined sense…
2010-11-05
"This in-depth book gives us the tools to re-engage with our natural world in a clear and understandable way. I love it!"Bear GryllsMassive thanks Bear!
2010-05-25
A detailed review of the book has just been published on Nick Gallop's Skills for Wild Lives website, which is well worth a visit anyway. (Image courtesy of his website).
2010-04-06
For the past few evenings I have been heading out into the Downs to find a good spot to keep watch out to the west. A sunset is always worth a walk, but there is rarer game worth hunting for in the skies at the moment. Unfortunately the clouds came in at the last minute last night and obscured Venus and Mercury again.Such a shame, it would have been an unusually good opportunity to catch them going to bed together. Fear not, I have a near foolproof plan for spotting them and shall report back with my results. If, over…
2010-04-03
I don't know what you're going through in your part of the world, but here in southern England there have been all the symptoms of a passing cold front recently. It has turned colder and there have been extreme changes of weather, with stormy downpours. The sun is out at this second, but the grass is poking up through a mat of hailstones.
I took this photo of an isolated cumulonimbus cloud and it shows one of the culprits in action. Spied on a horizon, this is exactly the sort of cloud that should send a walker,…
2010-03-18
Welcome Radio 4 listeners! You have found your way to the home of natural navigation on the Internet. (A podcast of my walk with Evan Davies for the Today programme can be found here. The short article that I wrote to go with the interview and the video that accompanied the broadcast can be found here.)The book reviews are starting to come in:'In a sat-nav dominated world, where GPS and a host of other acronyms designed to get us from A to B have overtaken paper maps, it is refreshing to meet someone who understands technology, but prefers…
