this month’s book reviews Book Club Cultivating Change

by Caro Feely

review by Jacqueline Brown

This is the fourth memoir from Caro set on her family ’ s organic vineyard near Bordeaux and once again, she has written a book that really hit home as I read it and spoke to me on a level not all memoirs do

Cultivating Change is so much more than an update on their family and wine-making journey, it is a punchy, inspiring read that highlights the climate change problem viewed from organic farmers on the front-line Last summer saw not only severe hailstorms hitting the vineyards around Bordeaux (something that is becoming more common), but the area was also victim to huge forest fires that devasted acres of woodland as they burned for weeks

As well as sharing their interesting and inspiring life in France, Caro takes us along with her as she attends conferences to speak about climate change issues It is an honest account of the good times as well as their stresses and personal struggles I learned a lot from this book about the issues they are facing on a daily basis, and also ideas on how to make more changes to our life Thermals rather than too much heating and bikes over cars have been the norm for us for many years, but I realise there is more we can do It was good to know that there are others out that who share my fears about the gravity of the situation we have created in the world

I hope that as well as her regular readers enjoying a catch-up on life at the vineyard, the climate change element in this book will give it the wider audience it deser ves