A book about living or travelling somewhere wild, camping, settling somewhere new

[PeonyFlush72]

Hello, can you help recommend a book for me please?

I'm interested in people leaving behind normal suburban or city life and either travelling or living somewhere simple.

For example, travelling around in a camper van, or doing an epic journey camping. Not visiting famous places etc just basic exploring and experiences.

Or maybe someone moving to rural x and doing up a house and starting a new life.

I loved the Carol Drinkwater books, also enjoyed Alex Roddie and the Hildasay walker.

(Can you tell that I'm rather unfulfilled with my stuffy safe suburban life?!)

Thanks in advance.

Dinner of Herbs by Carla Grissman. An American woman who spent a year in a remote village in Anatolia. It's a beautiful memoir - not a particularly long book, but it makes you think about life and simple generosity/kindness.

I second the pp who suggested Horse Boy. Fascinating adventure inspired by the love of their autistic son.
Also, the Derek Tangye series from the 50's/ 60's about a London couple who bought a flower farm on the Cornish cliffs. He has a lovely way of writing about the endless animals, both tame and wild, and the problems of succeeding in farming. Interestingly he writes of the threat of technology to the rural life and the cost of living crisis- in the 50s!

Finding Hildesay by Christian Lewis is excellent. A real adventure.

Great thread! My favourite short story is To Build A Fire by Jack London. As mentioned, loved H is for Hawk and The Moon's our Nearest Neighbour.

Family Life by Elisabeth Luard fits the bill. Be warned it’s very sad towards the end, though.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Life-Birth-Death-Whole/dp/1408831074

On foot through Africa by ffyona Campbell. She walks the length of Africa (unsurprisingly). She also wrote feet of clay, where she walked Australia. A bit retro as the walks were late 80s/90s. I think I was about 12 when I read it and still remember how in awe of her I was

Tarka the Otter or as PP suggested Ring of Bright Water
A Year in Provence (similar to Driving over Lemons I guess)
Narrow Dog to Carcassonne

I'm drifting into travelogues now but The Snow Leopard is a beautiful read

Also Clear Waters Rising about a hike across Europe's mountain ranges has stayed with me.

I also enjoyed Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks (plus many of his other travelogues)

F

Also disliked The Salt Path for so many of the same reasons previous posters have highlighted. How disappointing it’s being made into a film

Another vote for The Great Alone , Kristen Hannah.

Rita Golden Gelman's Tales of a Female Nomad is wonderful

I'm interested in people leaving behind normal suburban or city life and either travelling or living somewhere simple.

For example, travelling around in a camper van, or doing an epic journey camping. Not visiting famous places etc just basic exploring and experiences.

Or maybe someone moving to rural x and doing up a house and starting a new life.

Having grown up somewhere that people moved to to live The Good Life I have to say this view of rural living as 'simple' is deeply patronising. People who don't live in a city aren't some kind of noble savage that exist purely as the backdrop to the lives of the kind of deeply messed up individual who tend to write about these so called 'adventures'.

Ironically a few people have recommended a book about where I'm from. The author is local and was writing about facing the issues in their life at the time, not about escaping the rat race.

Oh, agreed. I’m also from somewhere people have long seen as a place to ‘retreat’ to, and, for one thing, having lived in a lot of other places, including huge cities, in several countries, it’s fully as ‘unsimple’ as anywhere I’ve lived, and for another, it’s very clear that many of the people seeking ‘the simple life’ bring a lot of complex messiness and unpleasantness with them, and are not often particularly well-balanced or good people.

In a couple of situations where I know the surrounding stories to a particular ‘seek the simple life’ story, it’s interesting.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. I listened to it on a long car journey.

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Unlost-Audiobook/B099KGZSBY

Oh, warning: Wild by Cheryl Strayed has a horrible anecdote about a horse, which is not nice to read as an animal lover. It's not imagery that I wanted in my head or will ever be able to forget.

The Hills is Lonely - Lillian Beckwith (and sequels)
Baby in a Backpack in Bhutan
Grandmother's Footsteps
Danziger's Travels

My Small Country Living by Jeanine McMullen

I second the suggestion of travel books by Dervla Murphy.

She was a lone female traveler - on a bike, and later with her little daughter in tow - in the 60s and 70s.

She depended on local generosity and hospitality for food and lodging, and was quite a curiosity in many places she traveled through and to.

Where the Indus is Young was a remarkable tale of hers. Travelling by foot through the mountains in Tibet in the depths of winter with her young daughter was something no one else would do

Not surprisingly, her daughter’s adult relationship with her was somewhat complex. I’m a huge fan of DM’s work, and bought her a pint once in Galway, but I don’t imagine she was necessarily an easy mother.

Even leaving aside the feats she expected of her young daughter (there’s a bit I find chilling in Where the Indus is Young where she lifts the 9 year old Rachel off their pony and remarks neutrally on her noticeable weight loss), I don’t imagine it was easy for R, born in 1968, growing up in Lismore with the identity of her father (Terence de Vere White, uninvolved, prominent and married) being an open secret. DM, who conceived intentionally (as in, it wasn’t a contraceptive failure), always says she never encountered any ill feeling, but that’s not to say Rachel didn’t.

Dervala Murphy is one of a kind - he books are such great reads . Not an easy woman to be raised by I'd say.
I liked that Dave eggers book someone recommended earlier though the ending is abrupt

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah - a semi-autobiographical novel moving to Alaska in the 1970s. I couldn't put it down - I didn't fully appreciate just how remote Alaska is from the rest of the US (ie you have to cross Canada to get there) until I read this book. Incredible descriptions of the landscapes and the short (and then the long) days.
I also love Willa Cather's My Antonia about the pioneers in the American West.
For something closer to home I would pick Horatio Clare's Running for the Hills about growing up on a remote hill farm in Wales.

I've come back to the thread to see what recommendations I missed. Just wanted to say how much I adored the Durrell books, I've read and reread them!

I’ve read it over and over again too. Love it.