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

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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 A meditation on connection between humans and animals, and the homes we make in wild places. I was completely immersed in this remote landscape' Katherine May, bestselling author of WINTERING Despite vivid descriptions, I found myself Googling areas to gain better understanding of the landscape and locations. Some photos, maps or a few sketches would’ve really helped. 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.

I very much enjoyed this book. I was tempted by the cover and the blurb and when you read that a book has been written by a PhD student, you are pretty much assured of good writing. I wasn't disappointed. 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 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!

The Ponies at the Edge of the World

I also liked her thoughts on the ways in which both people and animals are connected to the environment they call home and how both can ultimately suffer if they are removed to a different environment. One breeder talks about the importance of ponies finding the right work to do, explaining that different animals are suited for different roles, and she speaks of one pony needing to 'find herself'. It's impossible not to see Catherine's own time in Shetland as being part of the same process. 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. Uprooting I'm not a horse person particularly, but I live close to an area where ponies roam freely so they are commonplace in the environment around me. I hoped that this book would not be exclusively based on the ponies but would be more a memoir style account of the experience living in the Shetland Isles - it is exactly that. There is an enormous sense of place, of the community that welcomed the writer and the nature and landscape around her. I loved the observations of wildlife - otters, seals and birdlife and also the story of the adopted lamb or caddy. 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. 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.

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 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. I 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 . The author, an anthropologist, transports you to Shetland with her descriptions of the landscape in beautiful language.This is such a wonderful book and I will definitely be reading it again to see what I missed first time round. The central themes of the book about relationships between people and their 'domestic' animals are absorbing, though I did think they got a little repetitive towards the end. As a birder I noticed some of the ornithological comments were incorrect and would have benefited from sub-editing. I'm not best placed to comment on the experience of miscarriage but that part of the narrative gave me some insight into that and recovering from it. Catherine Munro and her husband move to Shetland for a year so that she can study the Shetland ponies for a thesis she is writing. This book beautifully interweaves the information she garners about the ponies and those who care for them with her experience of adapting to island life and her own personal journey toward a place of belonging. I 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.

Catherine included many interesting facts. I had no idea the King of Denmark pawned Orkney and Shetland to Scotland. I also learnt of the distaste for which many Shetlanders view symbols of Scottishness! My favourite chapter was on Foula, an island off Shetland with thirty residents. It combined all the best parts of the book - remote island communities, poetic scenery and beautiful animals. I thoroughly enjoyed my glimpse into this amazing world.

Books by Catherine

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. 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 A meditation on connection between humans and animals, and the homes we make in wild places. I was completely immersed' Katherine May, bestselling author of Wintering A meditative, exultant sojourn that illuminates the importance of working with nature, and of its importance in all we do and experience, and of living in the moment.' Polly Pullar, author of A DROP IN THE OCEAN 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.

On a final anthropology point Munro brings out the islands themselves as an active participant in her research. This worked amazingly well and made me think a lot about how I view place and how so often we don’t take into account one of the biggest actors in our everyday lives. I also thought she drew some very interesting theories about balancing domesticity of animals and their wildness and the dangers of too much one way or another. The importance as well of animal and human reciprocity was really well argued. It reminded me in many ways of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work. 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, I suddenly remembered the foals at the sale, the ones nobody had wanted, sold for less than the price of a takeaway coffee. What had become of them?” Shetlanders describe the islands as being a part of them, as being in their blood, and that wherever they go in the world they will always call the islands home.”

In 2015, Munro moved to Shetland to research a PhD about how we are shaped by our connections to animals and the landscape. The islanders’ lives have been intertwined for millennia with the smart, stoic ponies that thrive in this “land of extremes”, and over the course of a tough year, Munro learns plenty about how to live with nature and her neighbours. The book begins unconvincingly, but settles down into a thoughtful appeal for us to re-examine our ideas of community and our relationship with the wild. 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. I so enjoyed this beautifully wise reflection on how the lives and existences of humans and animals are inextricably linked. Set on the wild, wind-blown hills of Shetland, this is a wonderful journey of exploration into the lives of Shetland ponies and the people that love them, care for them and breed them. It is such a celebration of man and nature existing together, her descriptions of the natural world so precise and vivid, it made me long to visit these remote and wild islands at the edge of the world. 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.