Interesting and thought-provoking. I’ve never read anything like this before. I learnt so much about Shetland and Shetland ponies and animals and their interaction with humans. The writing was beautiful. Really enjoyable and very peaceful.

Mesmeric, Soulful Account of Community: People, Other Animals, Landscape

Catherine Munro’s wondrous book is in a particular genre I adore, when it is done well. And this is. The genre is factual, often about history, the natural world, the arts – but what is special is that the author, however well researched and informative they are, observe their own involvement and engagement with the subject being written about,

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.

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

Munro is an anthropologist by training. She has an affinity and connection with the Shetland Isles, and a fascination with its native animals, particularly Shetland ponies. Her PhD was specifically about the relationship between the islanders who breed and maintain the integrity of the ponies, and the animals they are fostering. For her research, she spent more than a year living on one of the islands, and visiting others to spend time with the pony communities – both the people and the equines. This is an account of all that, and of intense changes, both of loss, and of personal growth, which she found.

I particularly loved the section about healing horses – that is, horses healing humans. They are extraordinary animals, and, as pack animals, and prey animal, have evolved to be extremely sensitive to their surroundings and those within their community, whether other equines, or the people whom they connect with.

This is such a warm book, authentic and practical, and, wonderfully free from the merely sentimental.

I was drawn to read this book due to the title and the description. I have always been fascinated by the lives of the people that live in The Shetland Islands and the other Scottish highlands, as well as having a lifelong love of horses and ponies. I find with non- fiction that I prefer to read a hard copy as you get more of an experience that can be savoured with a pristine hard back copy, and I feel that this would have been the case with this book, as I read it on kindle as an advance review copy. It would make an excellent gift for others or yourself!
It can be described as part memoir, part nature book with vivid descriptions of the beautiful landscape and its inhabitants, bird life, sheep and of course, the Shetland Ponies. Additionally, the author shares how cathartic nature, animals, and friendship in the unlikeliest places can be when facing loss and sadness.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to review this advance e copy.

I really liked this book, I didn't have high expectations to start with but I pushed through and really got to enjoy it.

Thank's to Netgalley I got to read a copy of this wonderful book!

It was fantastic to follow the author on her journey to build a new home in Shetland, where she'd decided to lead her thesis on the island's beloved ponies. She truly emphasises the importance of a back and forth relationship with our beautiful nature that gives us so much. Every page resonated with love and care, history and tradition. From the relationship she's built with the native islanders, with the ponies, the sheep, to the landscape and weather. Her approach to domestication is one that is gentle and understanding rather than violent and using strength. Catherine Munro highlights that it is possible and even preferable to raise animals in a place that is already theirs, where their instincts will be stronger (thanks to past generations who will pass down their knowledge to their little ones) all the while keeping in mind their deeper needs, only teaching them what is necessary and with profound respect.

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.
Highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed "Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland" by Sarah Moss. This is also not quite a travelogue, not quite a memoir but a pleasant and insightful mix of both!