Catherine moves to Shetland as part of research for her Ph.D., studying the relationships between animals and humans. This is a beautiful account of her time among the islanders, both human and animal.

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 is not vegan and the book ties our past to our present more than our future --so the ethical questions fall short for our modern ruination. The passage about Yoda, the lamb's future, strikes this vegan reader as violent, harsh, and sad --although the author's decision between her available choices for him makes sense. And, at least, he will be allowed some years alive.I was glad to gain knowledge on a part of the world I knew next to nothing about but really wound up mesmerized by the loving exchanges between the different species bringing a true sense of symbiosis between man and nature. The author shares a beautiful journey to try and understand the island and all the living creatures that compose it. 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 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.

At the Edge of the World is a 2008 documentary which chronicles the efforts of animal rights activist Paul Watson and 45 other volunteers, who set out in two Sea Shepherd ships to hinder the Japanese whaling fleet in the waters around Antarctica. The film won Best Environmental Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Director and Producer Dan Stone would later produce the first season of Whale Wars. It depicts what went on during this excursion, with clips of beautiful scenery, news clips, whaling in action, and life on the ship. 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. 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 We are almost half way through the year and this has definitely been one of the stand out reads for me so far in 2022. ‘The Ponies at the Edge of the World’ is an ethnography on Shetland’s Shetland Ponies. The book explores themes of belonging, roots and community, tradition, our relationship to the land (and sea) as well as our relationship to animals and their relationship to us. 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.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. 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.

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.Her writing displayed an endearing vulnerability, especially when depicting pregnancy loss and her personal journey to find home. It was powerful, emotive stuff. The Ponies at the Edge of the World was best when portraying life in the small community and her assimilation into it. Her interactions with various animals were also touching and I smiled whenever puffins and otters were mentioned. 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. 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. It will get you thinking about your own encounters with animals and where your place is, the one that most represents ‘home’ and your own sense of belonging. It’s impossible not to reflect on this, such is the thought-provoking exploration of these themes by Catherine. It also got me thinking of my grandfather and his close bonds to farm animals and nature’s signs.

This is such a wonderful book and I will definitely be reading it again to see what I missed first time round.Her overall descriptions of the land, sea and wildlife were fantastic and really set an image in the readers eye. Her honesty about the situations she found herself also shone through well. What I particularly loved was how she managed to get the very difficult balance of combining her own personal story, anthropology theory and her research in this book and create something that was extremely readable and enjoyable. Her combining of these different elements is really what makes the book it is and paints the overall idea that everything is a lot more connected and in tune with each other than we might think if we only stop to observe this. 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?” Catherine moves to Shetland as part of her research for her PhD, studying the relationships between animals and humans. This is a beautiful account of her time among the islanders, both human and animal. 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.” 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