Interview with Ken O'Sullivan, author of Stories from the Deep
Ken O'Sullivan, author of Stories from the Deep: Reflections on a Life Exploring Ireland's North Atlantic Waters does a great job in answering my questions and recommends some great books! Before diving into the interview, please check out Ken's book Stories from the Deep:
Review from Book Depository:
Spun from the author's first-hand experience as an underwater cameraman and filmmaker, from memory, natural history and the culture of Ireland's coastal communities, Stories from the Deep is a profound and lyrical exploration of Ireland's ocean waters through narrative and poetry.
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Stories from the Deep: Reflections on a Life Exploring Ireland's North Atlantic Waters
From encounters with its rarest and most striking fauna, like the blue whale and basking shark, to the broader considerations of its impact on language, on history, and our shared sense of place, this genre-defying work is an eloquent and urgent tribute to the enduring beauty of our natural heritage.
Buy On:
Book Depository €12.76
Waterstones £14.99
Amazon UK £11.99
Amazon US $9.89
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Anything by Barry Lopez, but especially Arctic Dreams ... he uniquely combines a deep connection to the natural world and native peoples with a visceral interpretation of his subjects which appears to be based in some cases on decades of research and ensuing thoughtfulness.
Arctic Dreams
Review from Book Depository:
Lopez's journey across our frozen planet is a celebration of the Arctic in all its guises. A hostile landscape of ice, freezing oceans and dazzling skyscapes. Home to millions of diverse animals and people. The stage to massive migrations by land, sea and air. The setting of epic exploratory voyages.
In crystalline prose, Lopez captures the magic of the Arctic: the essential mystery and beauty of a continent that has enchanted man's imagination and ambition for centuries.
Buy On:
Book Depository €9.59 Waterstones £10.99 Amazon UK £9.01 Amazon US $12.99(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
I’m reading Horizon by the same author, Barry Lopez. It’s a very concentrated read, but manages to seamlessly move through stories of exploration, interrogating the explorer’s ideals and motivation and a consequent deconstruction of colonialism and it’s 'ideals', it even manages to traverse a path through all of this into contemporary populism.
Lopez’s knowledge of his subject, brings vivid clarity to his articulation, and it’s one of those reads where you say to yourself, if everyone could read this the world would be a better place ... but that’s unlikely.
I’m also reading The Mystic Warriors of the Plains by Thomas E. Mails, a fascinating book about native American peoples, there’s so much I never knew about the world.
Horizon
Review From Book Depository:
Taking us nearly from pole to pole - from modern megacities to some of the earth's most remote regions -- and across decades of lived experience, Barry Lopez gives us his most far-ranging yet personal work to date, in a book that describes his travels to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galapagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica.
Lopez also probes the long history of humanity's quests and explorations, including the prehistoric peoples who trekked across Skraeling Island in northern Canada, the colonialists who plundered Central Africa, an enlightenment-era Englishman who sailed the Pacific, a Native American emissary who found his way into isolationist Japan, and today's ecotourists in the tropics.
Throughout his journeys - to some of the hottest, coldest, and most desolate places on the globe - and via friendships with scientists, archaeologists, artists and local residents, Lopez searches for meaning and purpose in a broken world.
Horizon is a revelatory, epic work that voices concern but also hope - a book that makes you see the world differently, and that is the crowning achievement by one of America's great voices.
Buy On:
Book Depository €14.00 Waterstones £8.99 Amazon UK £18.40 Amazon US $16.99(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Mystic Warriors of the Plains: The Culture, Arts, Crafts and Religion of the Plains Indians
Review From Book Depository: The Mystic Warriors of the Plains offers readers an extraordinarily detailed view of the daily activities of the peoples of the North American plains, including the Sioux, Cheyenne, Pawnee, Nez Perce, Comanche, and many others. Used by Kevin Costner as a resource text for the motion picture Dances with Wolves, this is an extraordinarily in-depth examination of the day-to-day lives of the North American plains Indians, with over one thousand illustrations and thirty-two four-color plates. Covering everything from social customs, personal qualities, and government to types of weaponry, achievement marks, and the training of Indian boys, The Mystic Warriors of the Plains is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Plains Indian lore that will delight and inform everyone interested in understanding the native peoples of the Plains.
Buy On:
Book Depository €22.35 Waterstones £22.50 Amazon UK £26.74 Amazon US $89.99(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
You know I didn’t read much as a child, but we had a teacher in 4th class who used to sometimes read Walter Macken to us on rainy afternoons. These were the days of 45 kids in every class, but we were spellbound, and almost afraid to breathe in case you’d miss something.
There was this one kid I knew, now things weren’t great at home for him and far worse at school, but I remember him pleading with the teacher to read and then he’d be up at the front of the class taking everything in, oohing and aahing at all the stories’ twists.
I found it deeply upsetting when some years later he died a homeless man on the streets still only in his 20s with substance abuse issues. That one teacher and Walter Macken were possibly the only escape he had in his early life.
Flight of the Doves
Review From Book Depository:
Desperate to escape their vicious uncle in London, orphans Finn and Derval Dove embark on a dangerous journey across England to Ireland. Lonely and scared, their only hope lies in reaching the Connemara cottage of their beloved grandmother.
But for some reason their uncle offers a reward for their return and suddenly Finn and Derval find themselves at the centre of a nationwide search. Dogged every step of the way by people they don't know, who can the children trust...and how far will their uncle go to stop them reaching safety?
Buy On:
Book Depository €8.33 Waterstones £6.99 Amazon UK £7.99 Amazon US $5.00(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Always paper, but I must try some audio books. There can be a magic to hearing a story unfold, and I’ve always found that poetry can be best absorbed as an aural form.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Lahinch bookshop, for a small shop they keep a real bric a brac selection of books and there’s such a lovely ambience, a mix of Bohemian surfer culture with holiday makers searching for a dreamy escapist novel.
Míle buíochas to Ken for taking the time to answer my interview questions, and for some great book recommendations!
Please don't forget to check out his book Stories From The Deep.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Stories From The Deep (Gill), Vintage Publishing (Arctic Dreams, Horizon), Marlowe & Co (The Mystic Warriors of the Plains), Pan Macmillan (Flight Of The Doves)
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