User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
There are countless books written about mountains, just take a look around the travel section of a bookshop. However, there are not so many written about hills, in particular, the small inconsequential hills that abound the landscape in our country. A hill might not have the majesty or presence of a mountain, but for Cox, these are more accessible, and still have as much mystery and lore and their larger cousins.
Beginning in Somerset under the ever-watchful eye of the Tor and the inland sea that is the Somerset levels he wanders from Britain’s smallest hill, in Norfolk no less, to the highest point on the South Coast. Yet another house move takes him to a house most of the way up a hill in Derbyshire; he is snowed in and it is a place that alarms his cats, and he is often woken at 3.44 in the morning from a nightmare and he would often hear things being moved in the loft… Not many things scare him, sitting with his feet over the edge of Golden Cap is no problem, but halfway up some mechanical edifice is enough to freak Cox out.
He wades through some family history when he discovers that his great grandmother who lived on Dartmoor, prior to moving to Nottingham. He finds that Dartmoor is at its most eerie in the summer when the heat makes time move like treacle. He spends time walking across Dorset’s hills spotting his third hare since moving to the West Country and amusing himself over alternative meanings for the village names in the area. Just seeing a hill on a car journey and then finding on an OS map late is a thrill, especially if there is access to walk up it later.
As I drive the roads, I watch the hills. I always notice the interesting ones, and none of them aren’t interesting, so I notice them all.Ring the Hill is not quite a sequel to 21st Century Yokel, more of a slightly lairy companion. He seems to be one of the fastest funded authors on the publisher Unbound as he doesn’t really fit in any of the niches that a regular publisher has. Preferring to write widely about whatever the hell takes his fancy, from folklore to the music that works best when he is walking in a place. It is this wide-ranging fascination with all that he sees is what makes this book such a delight. Hares permeate the book too, not just the scant physical ones that he sees out and about, but the way that they are interwoven into the natural and spiritual worlds. I thought that this was a wonderful book, full of tangents and glimpses of things that fascinate him. I love the traditional linocut illustrations of hares that have been created by his mother and I was glad to see that his very LOUD DAD was back in the book again.
Rating: really liked it
A genial, occasionally very funny account of assorted rambles around and residencies in the British countryside, taking as its starting point the way that there's a lot written about the grandeur of mountains, but not enough about the gentler charm of hills. It's not going to win over anyone concerned about how much of the nature writing revival seems to centre on white guys with the sort of security that lets them hop into rivers or wander off through the woods whenever the urge takes them, though he's not entirely a middle class cliché, coming, like me, from the End Of The Middle (in his case Nottingham) and with at least one accented parent. For all of which, Cox is amiable enough company, and he does evoke the landscapes well, from that lingering sense of sea-ness which pervades the Somerset Levels to the arsiness of Dartmoor's ponies. And who among us would not be curious upon learning that a nearby village has a street named 'Teapot Lane (Worms Lane)'?
One darker interlude follows his ill-advised winter in the grim heart of the Peak District, the bit nobody visits for a daytrip – just up out of Eyam, only 500 feet off being a mountain. I can confirm that, extreme as this section may sometimes read, having once and only once in all my years in Derbyshire ended up in these parts, if anything he's underselling it. There are bleak places up there. And here as elsewhere, Cox has that lovely balance of not going full believer about the supernatural, but not disbelieving either, just recounting the stories as they stand, and (in Ken Campbell's formulation) supposing.
(Netgalley ARC)
Rating: really liked it
It’s impossible to imagine a more genial, candid, or generous tour guide than Tom Cox, whose fascinating, enlightening and moving accounts of his meanderings through the English countryside fill the pages of
Ring the Hill. This is by no means a conventional travel book: the information it provides regarding towns, villages, hamlets, hills, rivers, fields, historical sites and monuments that are on Cox’s itinerary is secondary to the author’s often humorous, sometimes sobering reflections on being alive, and the story of his own life in progress: the relationships, observations, learning opportunities and personal decisions that have bestowed on him an uncommon degree of self-awareness and a vivid sense of his place in the world and, indeed, the cosmos. Tom Cox is less traveler than nomad: a man who moves house with unusual regularity, not out of dissatisfaction, but more out of restless curiosity, driven, one imagines, by a yearning for a new and different experience. Once settled into new digs—sometimes before settling—his custom is to go out and explore, compulsively and in any weather, the surrounding countryside and jot down his findings and commentary in a journal. In the six sections of
Ring the Hill, Cox reports on ramblings through, among others, Glastonbury, The Peak District, Dartmoor and Dartington. Interspersed among descriptions of his discoveries and sightings are accounts of events taking place in his life at the time: visits with his Mom and Dad, encounters with locals (human and animal), the music he’s listening to, an obsession with climbing hills, an equal obsession with swimming, extreme weather, the adventures of his cats, his struggles to keep a tidy garden. Cox writes from a perspective of great compassion for the natural world and for those among us who strive to nurture and protect that world: his critiques are generally reserved for the disfiguring scars that recent human activity has left upon the landscape. He is knowledgeable, a retainer and purveyor of facts, but also easily distracted: we often witness him changing course on a whim when something off the beaten path catches his eye. He is flawed but aware of and admirably at peace with his shortcomings. Discussions of the ways in which natural phenomena influence his moods cause us to suspect that here is someone highly attuned and sensitive to the rhythms of the planet. Casual references to the presence of the dead within the land of the living and the influence of ancient rites and customs upon the present lend a mystical note to the narrative.
Make of me what you will, he seems to be saying,
this is who I am. The overall tone in these pieces is wise and conversational, and it is a conversation that will leave you hungry for more while lingering in your mind long after you have finished reading the book.
Rating: really liked it
Is Ring the Hill Tom's best written book yet?
I rarely have more than an hour of reading time a day, but by these standards I've pretty much inhaled this book - it took me a week - that's a sign of a book so well written I can't even bring myself to savour it, because I can't put it down.
If you read Tom's blogs a lot of the book will be familiar, but setting the pieces in the larger context of the intention of this work obviously makes the whole even richer and...magical? (Just a tiny bit.)
I think my favourite chapter was the cursed house on almost-mountain one. In the way that I'm glad that somebody lived it and lived to write about it, without me having to experience it for myself, not in a tee-hee kind of way.
And obviously, I also loved the final chapter, even though I might have dreaded reading it just a teeny tiny bit - because I knew it would make me cry (and it did).
Reading Ring the Hill has been one of my favourite reading experiences of the year and I'm glad I helped getting it published - even if only in just a very small way.
P.S. Jo Cox's lino prints that adorn some of the pages of the book are the cutest/coolest thing and it makes me sad she likely won't be able to make more. But following her on Instagram was the best thing I did on Instagram this year...because garden delights! Her account out-delights even Monty Don's as far as I'm concerned.
Rating: really liked it
It's very interesting to read this straight after Tom Cox’s earlier books. Then, his writing was witty and entertaining. Now there's an added dimension and depth to his writing, with more poetic imagery, more quirky and wonderful perspectives on things.
Each section is about different hills around England.
The first bit is about when he lived in Somerset near Glastonbury Tor. Lots of evocative descriptions of the Somerset Levels and the town of Bruton. I particularly liked the descriptions of the Levels as a dry sea; in a sense that's what they are, as they frequently get flooded and the Tor, Burrow Mump, and Athelney (where King Alfred hid from the Danes and burned the cakes) were islands once. The second bit is about his sojourn near Eyam in a very high, cold, haunted house. I remember reading his blogposts when he was living there: very scary. But the experience created the amazing title story of Help the Witch, which is probably what you might call suffering for your art.
I love the way his writing is so evocative of landscape. It helps that I'm very familiar with the landscapes he's writing about, but even if I wasn't, I think I'd still enjoy reading it. It's also interesting getting someone else's perspective on a landscape that you know well (a bit like book clubs at their best. There should be a landscape club!) and it helps that he's also interested in folklore and history and wildlife.
The book deals with so many landscapes and hills I've known and loved: the area around Glastonbury, Crook Peak, Brent Knoll, Blackdown, Dartington (which I've visited twice, once for a trade union training, and once for the classic music summer school), Eyam (and some that I haven't visited, but would like to make the acquaintance of) that it was like visiting a selection of old friends. This book will be going on the sacred bookshelf containing William Dalrymple and Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Rating: really liked it
I read this book through The Pigeonhole, which meant it came stave by stave. I think that was the perfect way to read this, as each chapter is entire in itself.
I enjoyed this book so much. It was like having a really fascinating conversation with a really interesting bloke in a country pub on a cold, wet January night,when nobody has anywhere they really need to be. Tom goes for walks, gets lost, spends a winter snowed in, watches his cats - and observes the world as he does so. He shares those observations with you - funny, intriguing, mundane and a little bit mystical at times. His expeditions are really "doable" - he left me inspired to walk more, watch more and think more. And read more of his books, obviously.
Rating: really liked it
I spent nearly half a year reading this book, not because I didn't like it, but because some books just makes you feel better about things. And this book made me feel better about a lot of thing. I really appreciate its ability to take you along on a stroll in the English countryside and beyond- into the fey places.
Rating: really liked it
a lovely exploration of hills and their stories, some cats, a few people, and some very interesting houses.
Rating: really liked it
Love Tom's style and attitude. A beautiful journey across and about England. WOFFAL!
Rating: really liked it
This is one of those naturey non-fiction books that defies categorisation. The description on the back says it's about hills, but that's not truly the case? Hills do feature in it, quite prominently in some chapters, but then there's no clear hill in others. There's not really a specific topic that is addressed, or issue, etc.
If you are someone who generally likes their books to be about a specific something, don't let this put you off. It's really well-written and Tom Cox is a really funny writer. The kind of funny that feels almost accidental, as if he's trying to give you a chuckle but doesn't expect you to end up laughing out loud.
And then in the final chapter, which has a large section devoted to his four cats, he made me cry quite badly as I ended up thinking about our late cat and her elderly years. So yes, I definitely recommend this book and will be picking up more of TC's writing in the future.
Rating: really liked it
I love pretty much everything I've read from Tom Cox, and this nature-memoir is no different. It's all lovely, informative, and funny too, with some bonus spooky elements. Just as it should be. Looking forward to the next one.
Rating: really liked it
Genial, funny memoir of place(s). At times made me feel particularly square and risk-averse, but then I probably knew that about myself anyway. Good stuff.
Rating: really liked it
Review to come :)
Rating: really liked it
Essentially, Ring the Hill is a collection of autobiographical stories based around or near hills in England, but it so much more. This book is a balm - an antidote to crazy modern living - and one which I have fallen in love with. I relished hanging out in between the pages of these stories. They calmed me and made me long for the hills!
Divided into six sections, each one is directly or loosely based on a hill located near where Cox was living at some point in the last decade. Tom shares stories, anecdotes and observations on topics ranging from local history, folklore, family history, SHOUTY DAD shenanigans, cat love, OS maps, places of wonder and colourful characters he has met whilst out rambling.
Beautiful prints by Tom's mum, artist Jo Cox, are shared throughout the book, along with some wonderfully evocative black and white snaps of different locations written about in the book.
I found each of the sections enjoyable, very entertaining and as individual as the hills that they are based on. The storytelling meanders masterfully, like Tom's expeditions.
I absolutely loved this book, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys nature, rambling, hills, folklore or just damn good writing.
Rating: really liked it
Beautiful prose-writing. Proud to have been a supporter of this with Unbound
