Keep a note of the name

 of Cal Flyn.  Her second book, Islands of Abandonment - I haven't read her first, Thicker than Water, yet.  But I may well do, before too long.

Her islands, are those places of neglect.  She takes us to derelicts, abandoned spots, hostile places.  Contaminated places.  And also to islands.

We learn of the current state of play in Chernobyl, and Detroit.  Of what the passage of time has done to the flora and fauna.  Without human interference.  The battlefields of Verdun - there's a harrowing tale.  And the abandoned island of Swona, where the cattle are left for nature to do what nature does.

 And that's just some of them.  We visit the aftermath of volcanic eruptions, of floods and deserts.  Places we humans have had to vacate, whether responsible for the devastation or not.

Cal Flynn brings us the return of the wildlife, without human interference, dreams of aurochs.  There is so much, such a huge amount of research and travel.  I'd better not tell you any more.

The girl can write, beautifully. This is one of those books where I really want the hardback in a bookcase, whereas I read this one on kobo.  I might just treat myself, if not just for the pictures (which is where the e-reader lets you down, and I suspect will continue so to do, even with kobo's new colour version).  You really can't beat the real thing, and I did sell one this week so space on the shelf to fill...