Ponies At The Edge Of The World: On nature, belonging and finding home

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Her writing displayed an endearing vulnerability, especially when depicting pregnancy loss and her personal journey to find home. It was powerful, emotive stuff. The Ponies at the Edge of the World was best when portraying life in the small community and her assimilation into it. Her interactions with various animals were also touching and I smiled whenever puffins and otters were mentioned. Against Munro’s journey to understand the ponies is set her own desire to have a family. When tragedy hits it is the natural world and the animals that inhabit it that provide the comfort and hope she needs to move forward.

Catherine moves to Shetland as part of research for her Ph.D., studying the relationships between animals and humans. This is a beautiful account of her time among the islanders, both human and animal. I spend some time each year on Shetland, particularly on Foula which features as a whole chapter of this book, and Out Skerries which is often accessed via Whalsay where most of the other chapters are based. I found the observations about Shetland as a whole and specific islands to be perceptive. Any reader of the book taking to the description of Foula is recommended to visit, it really is as unique as it comes across.Catherine Munro is living in Aberdeen, lurching from temporary job to temporary job, the stress of not knowing if she can pay the bills gradually eroding her spirit and soul. Eventually, her application to study for a doctorate is successful and she travels to the Shetland Island to study the eponymous ponies of the archipelago.

Munro, in my mind, joins with Olivia Laing and Helen Macdonald, in her ability to write precisely and beautifully about place, inform and educate, but in a very dynamic and engaged manner. She herself is changed and expanded by her subject matter, and her readers become similarly engaged and present in relationship with the subject Catherine Munro transforms her life when she moves to Shetland to study the hardy ponies who call this archipelago home. Over the course of her first year, she is welcomed into the rhythms and routines that characterise life at the edge of the world. I had this on my wishlist and then when I did buy it I wondered whether I would take to it. In the event I found it a thought provoking and enjoyable read. This appears to me to be a particularly female approach (though there are of course also wonderful male writers who also engage in this way. Andrew Grieg and Robert MacFarlane spring immediately to mind.This book is a lovely, relaxing account of a year and more in the author's life, while she moved to Shetland to work on her PhD. She chose to study the island's ponies and how they fitted into the lives of islanders and nature of the island. Intelligent in observation and precise and elegant in her writing, Catherine Munro shows how people and animals live and respond to each other, particularly in island communities like Shetland. She shows great insight into the way both the seasons and the sea's strong winds affect people in places like these' Donald S Murray, author of In a Veil of Mist I loved her descriptions of Shetland scenery and culture - I have never been to Shetland, so I can say how accurate they are, but they left me with a strong sense of the place. I also appreciated the way in which she was willing to learn from local people, her concern to adapt to the culture and her awareness of her own ignorance - it made a refreshing change from the know-it-all attitude of some memoirs written by those who move to more remote locations! I was glad to gain knowledge on a part of the world I knew next to nothing about but really wound up mesmerized by the loving exchanges between the different species bringing a true sense of symbiosis between man and nature. The author shares a beautiful journey to try and understand the island and all the living creatures that compose it.

Memories of books read long ago and relationships that ended return to haunt the narrator of this prize-winning Swedish novel when she is laid low with a fever. Often, they’re inextricably linked: a copy of Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy, for instance, is inscribed to her girlfriend, while a waterlogged copy of Birgitta Trotzig’s The Marsh King’s Daughter is all that remains of her friendship with former housemate Niki. The nonlinear narrative renders the protagonist both vivid and obscure – the perfect conduit for this compelling, uncannily precise meditation on transience. UprootingI had drifted, gotten lost, strayed from the paths and places I love. I felt Shetland calling me, and in this moment, I began my slow, imperfect journey towards finding home. Her research into the ponies, into their heritage and lineage, into the ways they are known, respected and loved by the Shetlanders that breed and care for them, illuminates the sheer strength of character and personality of both the humans and animals that inhabit the rugged landscape.

The author, an anthropologist, transports you to Shetland with her descriptions of the landscape in beautiful language. Her book immediately felt relaxing, poetic and meditative. It made me feel like I was there too, with the wind blowing in my face and the skylark calls in the air. So many beautiful descriptions of nature. It’s as much about finding our place in the world, a place that feels like home, as it is Shetland ponies.It will get you thinking about your own encounters with animals and where your place is, the one that most represents ‘home’ and your own sense of belonging. It’s impossible not to reflect on this, such is the thought-provoking exploration of these themes by Catherine. It also got me thinking of my grandfather and his close bonds to farm animals and nature’s signs.