Book Shelf

By Bosse Dahlgren & Wendy Barrie

Sustainable recipes, selfsufficiency, biodiversity, food security and conservation doesn’t even come close to describing the topics covered in this 424 page fully illustrated book. Exploring Scottish and Nordic food culture with over 100 recipes, this hardback is the result of years of research and practical experience. Co-written by Scottish Food Guide creator Wendy Barrie and her husband Bosse, they highlight serious issues seasoned with lighthearted anecdotes from farming life to inform and entertain.

Bosse Dahlgren is a regenerative farmer, horse logger and lifelong campaigner for biodiversity, working with rare breed living genebanks. He has been milking cows since he was eight years old, his grandfather broke in horses for the army and as a boy he watched his grandmother carry out nose-to-tail pig butchery on the kitchen table every December.

Nordic in style, Nordic by nature, together they explore the shared food cultures of Northern Europe, created by landscape, climate and soils, reflecting on the past and looking to the future with refreshing ideas for food production and tourism: making the most of what you have and using it in ways that will provide the best food in the kindest way for our planet following Slow Food principles.

This book combines Bosse’s first hand knowhow of nature friendly farming practices, supplying chefs and restoring landscapes, alongside Wendy’s collaborations with artisan food producers, chefs, restaurants, festivals and food tourism. Their book, like many of the heritage foods therein, is truly a rare breed.

This book is aimed at… • Growers who wish to cook more • Cooks who seek insights into how food is produced • Farmers, smallholders and gardeners • Self-sufficiency • Environmentalists • Supporters of the Slow Food movement • Students of life • Gastronomes and foodies

Available @ £30 (includ. UK p&p) online from www.scottishfoodguide. scot

By Polly Pullar

Polly Pullar’s life has always centred around nature. From running wild with deer, eagles, otters and seals as a young child in Ardnamurchan, to learning how to rehabilitate endangered red squirrels and snowy owls as an adult, The Horizontal Oak tells her extraordinary life story and how wilderness has always been at the heart of it.

The Horizontal Oak is not your average memoir, nor is it a typical story about rewilding in Scotland. It expertly brings these two narratives together, taking the reader on a sometimes laugh-out-loud, sometimes heart-wrenching journey through Polly’s triumphs and losses as she navigates her family’s painful secrets and an ever-changing natural landscape around her.

Though her childhood might have been blessed with unspoilt natural Highland beauty, it was also marred by family enigmas which ultimately turned to tragedy. Her parents divorced when she was only eight years old, with her father’s ongoing battle with alcoholism a key reason for their separation. Polly also struggled to discover her true parentage, as doubts began to surface about the identity of her real biological father. As she grew older, Polly began to bear more of the burden of caring for her father, which strains her mentally and physically. This book deals with intense themes of mental illness and loss, but in a very honest, sensitive, and meaningful manner. In her early adulthood, when she is still just discovering herself and her interests, Polly loses her father to suicide, and faces her own dark moments as well.

After this devastating period, Polly shows her resilience and strength, as she rebuilds her life, finds love, and devotes herself wholeheartedly to nature. Sorrel, a kestrel with an injured wing, becomes Polly’s trusted companion throughout her grief and heartbreak. She then becomes a registered wildlife rehabilitator, which sparks a lifelong journey of caring for injured and disabled animals. Every animal that enters Polly’s care comes with its own incredible story, and as the reader, you can’t help but root for their survival and healing as Polly pours all of herself into saving them. The Horizontal Oak shares a wealth of wisdom about the native wildlife of the Scottish Highlands, the various threats to these animals’ habitats and subsistence, and how to best support them.

Each stage of Polly’s life is marked by new challenges, both in her environmental work and personal endeavours. Over time, her relationship with her effervescent and often difficult mother breaks down. Polly must reconcile with this complex and important relationship, even as she navigates the end of her own marriage and the intricacies of being a new mother herself. The Horizontal Oak, however, is far from a downer, as each of these phases are peppered with humour and candour which endears you to the author and the grace with which she has faced the setbacks in her life. For a moving, authentic, and wonderfully human story about one person’s incredible life with nature at the heart, The Horizontal Oak is the ideal summer read.

The Horizontal Oak: A Life in Nature is published by Birlinn on 21 July 2022 (£16.99, hardback) www.birlinn.co.uk