What are you reading at the moment?

I'm reading..........well I'm listening to "The Salt Path" by Raynor Winn on Audiobook, she is not only the author but also the narrator.

It's a story of a couple, Raynor and her terminally ill husband, Moth who have lost everything and embarked on a journey, not of escape ,but of salvation.
With nothing left and little time they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea swept South West Coast path from Somerset to Dorset via Devon and Cornwall.
They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only essentials for survival on their backs as they live in the wild ancient , weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky.
Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

This is a true story and is unflinchingly honest and inspiring.

This is my first audiobook and I have enjoyed every moment of this wonderful story so far.

These Audiobooks are quite expensive when compared to a paperback but I took up an offer on Amazon to have 30 days free trial plus two free audiobooks! :)
My other choice of book was Robert McFarlane Underland which I will wrap my ears around once I have come to the end of The Salt Path.

:) P.
 
I'm reading..........well I'm listening to "The Salt Path" by Raynor Winn on Audiobook, she is not only the author but also the narrator.

It's a story of a couple, Raynor and her terminally ill husband, Moth who have lost everything and embarked on a journey, not of escape ,but of salvation.
With nothing left and little time they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea swept South West Coast path from Somerset to Dorset via Devon and Cornwall.
They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only essentials for survival on their backs as they live in the wild ancient , weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky.
Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

This is a true story and is unflinchingly honest and inspiring.

This is my first audiobook and I have enjoyed every moment of this wonderful story so far.

These Audiobooks are quite expensive when compared to a paperback but I took up an offer on Amazon to have 30 days free trial plus two free audiobooks! :)
My other choice of book was Robert McFarlane Underland which I will wrap my ears around once I have come to the end of The Salt Path.

:) P.
That sounds a fantastic read, Paul.
 
@patw - I'm assuming you know the broad outline of what happens? If not don't read this. Looks excellent - I've not read this particular book but have read 'South' - Shackleton's own account of the expedition. Boy's own stuff - an unbelievable story of survival against vast odds. Shackleton was a proper old school hero - very much the opposite of the class-bound idiot Scott - one survived - the other didn't - pretty much all you need to know. Our understanding of the expedition is helped no end by the pioneering photography of the Australian Frank Hurley - stark and beautiful in places. He carried out 150 glass plate negs - having smashed the other 400 - on the crew's trek to Elephant Island. Takes a bit more effort than sticking a couple of memory cards in your pocket? The journey to seek help in the 'James Caird' - a barely adapted 22 ft open boat defies belief - 800 miles over some of the roughest seas in the world - to South Georgia - where there was a whaling station - called Stromness - interestingly enough. Finding one of the remotest islands in the world was an achievement in itself - but the problem upon landing was that they were on the wrong side - Shackleton and the two fittest of the six crew - then had to traverse a mountain range for three days to get to safety. By the end they were getting seriously unhinged. After a couple of aborted attempts Shackleton returned to rescue the rest of the men on Elephant Island - every one made it home safely - not a single casualty. The same unfortunately can't be said for their dogs - which were eaten. One of the saddest aspects to the whole thing - was that when the crew made it home - most of them joined up - they had missed the better part of the First World War - some even expressed guilt for being 'unpatriotic' and having spent the interim in the Antarctic - many of them died or were maimed in short order in the trenches - grimly ironic to have survived all that to be thrown into the maw of the meat grinder of an utterly pointless war. All in all - a gripping story - Shackleton was a hero - but their experiences really just underpin an essential truth about the grand age of polar exploration - if you want to achieve things successfully - and with a minimum of fuss - get a Norwegian to do it. Cheers - I.
 
@patw - I'm assuming you know the broad outline of what happens? If not don't read this. Looks excellent - I've not read this particular book but have read 'South' - Shackleton's own account of the expedition. Boy's own stuff - an unbelievable story of survival against vast odds. Shackleton was a proper old school hero - very much the opposite of the class-bound idiot Scott - one survived - the other didn't - pretty much all you need to know. Our understanding of the expedition is helped no end by the pioneering photography of the Australian Frank Hurley - stark and beautiful in places. He carried out 150 glass plate negs - having smashed the other 400 - on the crew's trek to Elephant Island. Takes a bit more effort than sticking a couple of memory cards in your pocket? The journey to seek help in the 'James Caird' - a barely adapted 22 ft open boat defies belief - 800 miles over some of the roughest seas in the world - to South Georgia - where there was a whaling station - called Stromness - interestingly enough. Finding one of the remotest islands in the world was an achievement in itself - but the problem upon landing was that they were on the wrong side - Shackleton and the two fittest of the six crew - then had to traverse a mountain range for three days to get to safety. By the end they were getting seriously unhinged. After a couple of aborted attempts Shackleton returned to rescue the rest of the men on Elephant Island - every one made it home safely - not a single casualty. The same unfortunately can't be said for their dogs - which were eaten. One of the saddest aspects to the whole thing - was that when the crew made it home - most of them joined up - they had missed the better part of the First World War - some even expressed guilt for being 'unpatriotic' and having spent the interim in the Antarctic - many of them died or were maimed in short order in the trenches - grimly ironic to have survived all that to be thrown into the maw of the meat grinder of an utterly pointless war. All in all - a gripping story - Shackleton was a hero - but their experiences really just underpin an essential truth about the grand age of polar exploration - if you want to achieve things successfully - and with a minimum of fuss - get a Norwegian to do it. Cheers - I.

No need for the 'Spoiler alert' regarding the twists and turns of Shackleton's expedition and the outcome of his men.I didn't know that on their return home most of the crew joined up to play their part in the war.....TRAGIC !!!
Thanks for the write-up Iain,laughed at the Scandinavian ending.

Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.
Ernest Shackleton
 
Hurley-Shack1.jpg

@patw - one of my favourite - but lesser known of Hurley's pictures from the Shackleton expedition. The 21st of November 1915 - the 'Endurance' finally succumbs to the ice and slips below. It had been trapped for some four months - slowly drifting with the pack ice. It didn't go down like the Titanic - the crew had time - over the months - once they had seen the writing on the wall - to strip it of anything that could help them to survive. The fact the ship lasted that long - was in no small way due to it being designed and built in Norway - see previous comments. When the main beams and timbers finally gave - the noise was deafening. I love this picture because of the dog team watching - their posture and body language - ears folded back -

one dug to another - 'Awe shite Davy - baw bags - that's the ship fucked - this isnae gonnae end well.'

other dug - 'You're right there Shug - we're humped.'

Glaswegian dogs - obviously. Ha ha - I.
 
View attachment 49364

@patw - one of my favourite - but lesser known of Hurley's pictures from the Shackleton expedition. The 21st of November 1915 - the 'Endurance' finally succumbs to the ice and slips below. It had been trapped for some four months - slowly drifting with the pack ice. It didn't go down like the Titanic - the crew had time - over the months - once they had seen the writing on the wall - to strip it of anything that could help them to survive. The fact the ship lasted that long - was in no small way due to it being designed and built in Norway - see previous comments. When the main beams and timbers finally gave - the noise was deafening. I love this picture because of the dog team watching - their posture and body language - ears folded back -

one dug to another - 'Awe shite Davy - baw bags - that's the ship fucked - this isnae gonnae end well.'

other dug - 'You're right there Shug - we're humped.'

Glaswegian dogs - obviously. Ha ha - I.

Aye,the baws definitely burst !!!

Great photo, cheers I.
 
@patw - I'm assuming you know the broad outline of what happens? If not don't read this. Looks excellent - I've not read this particular book but have read 'South' - Shackleton's own account of the expedition. Boy's own stuff - an unbelievable story of survival against vast odds. Shackleton was a proper old school hero - very much the opposite of the class-bound idiot Scott - one survived - the other didn't - pretty much all you need to know. Our understanding of the expedition is helped no end by the pioneering photography of the Australian Frank Hurley - stark and beautiful in places. He carried out 150 glass plate negs - having smashed the other 400 - on the crew's trek to Elephant Island. Takes a bit more effort than sticking a couple of memory cards in your pocket? The journey to seek help in the 'James Caird' - a barely adapted 22 ft open boat defies belief - 800 miles over some of the roughest seas in the world - to South Georgia - where there was a whaling station - called Stromness - interestingly enough. Finding one of the remotest islands in the world was an achievement in itself - but the problem upon landing was that they were on the wrong side - Shackleton and the two fittest of the six crew - then had to traverse a mountain range for three days to get to safety. By the end they were getting seriously unhinged. After a couple of aborted attempts Shackleton returned to rescue the rest of the men on Elephant Island - every one made it home safely - not a single casualty. The same unfortunately can't be said for their dogs - which were eaten. One of the saddest aspects to the whole thing - was that when the crew made it home - most of them joined up - they had missed the better part of the First World War - some even expressed guilt for being 'unpatriotic' and having spent the interim in the Antarctic - many of them died or were maimed in short order in the trenches - grimly ironic to have survived all that to be thrown into the maw of the meat grinder of an utterly pointless war. All in all - a gripping story - Shackleton was a hero - but their experiences really just underpin an essential truth about the grand age of polar exploration - if you want to achieve things successfully - and with a minimum of fuss - get a Norwegian to do it. Cheers - I.

For those that use Kindles's, Shakeltons' South is on Amazon without charge; you have to hunt for it and wade through all ones that are charged at full price but it is there...


F8F0CDAA-6E12-4B3B-87AE-0143641183ED_4_5005_c.jpeg
 
I used that book (albeit in hard copy) when doing a leadership and management course during my Fire and Service time...

...I have just downloaded the book so looking forward to reading it although I have a long reading list at the moment! I am currently wading through over 400 free classic books on Amazon at the moment to see which ones catch my eye; many gems...
 
Heads up - the BBC this weekend have done a two part adaption of Vasily Grossman's 'Stalingrad' - you can get it via the app - I'm a big fan of Grossman - his 'A Writer at War' is one of the most affecting things I have ever read. I think 'Stalingrad' was only translated into English last year - he wrote it in 1950. The battle for Stalingrad exerts a gruesome fascination - unspeakable depravity - fighting room to room - house to house - brick by brick - Stalin's final stand - no matter the cost - their back to the river - no retreat - a favoured weapon of the Russian troops - was a sharpened spade. Grim. Bizarre stories - the Germans to a large degree - initially anyway - had air superiority - when the Stukas started bombing - both sides took shelter in the same trenches - a temporary truce - then they got back out and started trying to kill each other again. Civilians continued to survive there - holed up in cellars - boiling up wallpaper for the nutritional content - stories of cannibalism are many. The Germans lost - the Russians just had more bodies to throw at it - literally - failing to learn from the example of Napoleon - you can't defeat Russia - its too big and there are too many Russians - the weather. Ultimately - Operation Uranus - encircling Von Paulus troops - a fatal wound the Nazis couldn't recover from. Not many of the 250,000 odd troops taken prisoner saw home again. See what you think yourself - cheers - I.

@Barry Giddens @Scotshave @Ferry-shave @Missoni @Blademonkey@patw
 
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Heads up - the BBC this weekend have done a two part adaption of Vasily Grossman's 'Stalingrad' - you can get it via the app - I'm a big fan of Grossman - his 'A Writer at War' is one of the most affecting things I have ever read. I think 'Stalingrad' was only translated into English last year - he wrote it in 1950. The battle for Stalingrad exerts a gruesome fascination - unspeakable depravity - fighting room to room - house to house - brick by brick - Stalin's final stand - no matter the cost - their back to the river - no retreat - a favoured weapon of the Russian troops - was a sharpened spade. Grim. Bizarre stories - the Germans to a large degree - initially anyway - had air superiority - when the Stukas started bombing - both sides took shelter in the same trenches - a temporary truce - then they got back out and started trying to kill each other again. Civilians continued to survive there - holed up in cellars - boiling up wallpaper for the nutritional content - stories of cannibalism are many. The Germans lost - the Russians just had more bodies to throw at it - literally - failing to learn from the example of Napoleon - you can't defeat Russia - its too big and there are too many Russians - the weather. Ultimately - Operation Uranus - encircling Von Paulus troops - a fatal wound the Nazis couldn't recover from. Not many of the 250,000 odd troops taken prisoner saw home again. See what you think yourself - cheers - I.

@Barry Giddens @Scotshave @Ferry-shave @Missoni @Blademonkey@patw

Thanks for this. I read Antony Beaver's Stalingrad and Berlin; some of the imagery has stayed with me. It will be good to get Vasily Grossman's perspective. I can see why many still revere Stalin for saving Russia from total annihilation, despite the unbelievable ruthlessness, brutality and sacrifice required to win. After reading Hugh Trevor Roper's Table Talk, I can understand why Russia knew it was in an absolute existential fight for its continued existence and why Germany believed control of the East was required for its own existence. I suspect the full story of Stalingrad has yet been told and may never be.
 
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