Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A life to envy, 5 Aug 2008
Those who go into the mountains appreciate the meaning and implications of travail, and it is easy to find empathy with Tom Price's rich experiences and perceptive observations. To support his wide range of easily read and assimilated articles there are the author's own delightful illustrations. Much of `Travail So Gladly Spent' relates to the Lake District but it covers many parts of the world including the most remote as well as more traditional mountain areas.
Tom Price starts by acknowledging that he has "always been an associate, rather than a full member of society, ready to cooperate, but not to belong". This philosophy shines through his diverse and discrete stories of both success and failure and of every stage in between; together with recollections of numerous individuals and organisations connected with the great outdoors; and it allows illuminating commentary on a variety of associated matters. In addition to subject matter `Travail So Gladly Spent' has great intellectual quality - making it a marvellous book for the bedside where it can be dipped into as a source of knowledge and of inspiration.
Readers can share and gain from Tom Price's travail, but they should be prepared to be at least a little jealous of the deep pleasure and intense enrichment he found in the mountains and the wilderness. Most would be well satisfied to live a small proportion of Tom Price's fruitful lifetime.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fellow travailer, 23 Jun 2001
This is a highly original book, illustrated with a light and lucid touch by the author himself. One of Britain's most respected outdoor educators, Tom followed Eric Shipton into direction of the flagship Outward Bound Mountain School at Eskdale where he hired me green and not golden right out of university. I found his leadership rare, extraordinary and illuminatory then. Reading his book now, I see a reflection of that unforgotten intellectual clarity, fresh as a Lakeland tarn on a cool spring morning. My mother assured me that a book is best read in short bursts. She left little volumes of `thoughts for the day' on the bathroom stool to reinforce the habit. Although Tom's book meets this tough criterion easily for the reader -it is organized burst-wise around discrete and memorable wanderings - there is an honourable purpose to the pilgrimage. He gives an inspiring new twist to the quizzical pilgrim as travailer, as enquiring fellow-wanderer through this mysterious dance we call life. Not only is it a privilege for us to share his travail, but we also benefit from his observations. `I have always been an associate, rather than a full member of society, ready to cooperate, but not to belong.' This from an acknowledged and respected leader, who has walked the walk, run the run. This is someone whose perceptiveness we can trust..... as did so many firms, organizations, young people, and, yes, parents during those risk-taking Outward Bound days. The book is full of these quietly startling reassessments. His engaging tales are thus all the more worth reading.
|
|
|
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great writing style. Easy to read and understand., 2 Nov 2000
By A Customer
This book was an eye opener for me as I have known Tom Price for a long time and didn't realized that he had travelled so widely. He is a very modest person, casually mentioning on the odd occasion that "I've been there" or he would tell a small bit about some adventure. Now that I've read more about his travels and his exciting life, I will be able to ask some meaningful questions the next time I take a hike with him from Keswick Moot Hall. Truly an interesting book.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Stieg Larsson
