This Week I am Reading ... Mrs Julie Brookes

Mrs Julie Brookes is our Subject Guardian for Languages at Elmfield as well as being the Guardian for Class 8 . Julie shares her review of The Way Home by Mark Boyle below.

I first heard of Mark Boyle when he was known as ‘The Moneyless Man’.  Mark - a business graduate- had lived entirely without money for 3 years.  Next, he moved to rural Ireland and tried to live without any technology whatsoever:

‘ No running water, no car, no electricity or any of the things it powers: the internet, phone, washing machine, radio or light bulb. Just a wooden cabin on a smallholding, by the edge of a stand of spruce.’

He writes about stripping away all the nonsense, wanting to put his finger on the pulse of life and to ‘feel the elements in their enormity.’ He considers what it means to be a human being ‘when the boundaries between man and machine are blurring.’

His life revolves around finding and cutting wood, fishing for pike and growing food. Sometimes he barters his time and helps his neighbours on the land in exchange for other goods. At times it must have been exhausting but he seems to flourish in this environment.

I am always drawn to the concept of a simpler life and this idea fascinates me but seems almost impossible. Mark is open about how hard it can be at times, especially in the dark winter months but the community he builds around him, the way they support each other, and the way his life is simplified is very attractive. He has no watch or calendar- he uses the rhythm of the sun and the seasons. He communicates through letters and writes harshly about the ‘tyranny of fast-paced, relentless communication’ and ‘the addictiveness of the hollow excitement (celebrity gossip, reality tv, dating websites and 24/7 news) that exists behind our screens.’

I loved this book and although I will not be heading to a cabin any time soon, I found it inspiring and made me want to live more simply and be less dependent on technology. As Mark says:

‘When you peel off the plastic that industrial society vacuum packs around you, what remains - your real needs- could not be simpler. Fresh air, clean water, real food, companionship, warmth… there’s no extravagance, no clutter, no unnecessary complications.’

I also love this book because it introduced me to Wendell Berry - a poet I had never heard of before. I leave you with one of his wonderful poems.

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Perry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and where the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of the wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars 

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.