And we’re back! We’ve had a restful January, slowly renewing the stock in our two ÒR Portree shops and generally tucking ourselves up against the wild winter weather that rolls over Skye this time of year. It seems like a good time to publish our Winter Reading List, picked once again by ÒR founder Jen.

We love the wandering, wondering nature of these books and all four take you on some kind of journey: through the night sky, the wilderness, the distant past, and through the seasons of the year ahead.

ÒR Winter Reading List

The Modern Cook’s Year

by Anna Jones

Anna Jones is the woman you want if you’re looking for delicious vegetarian cooking that has a refreshingly seasonal food philosophy at its core.

In her third (and biggest) book she includes over 250 recipes that are in sync with the year. Seasonal food for when spring daffodils arrive right through to cooking for Christmas.

And what does she recommend for these dark days of January you might ask? Warming, spicy comfort food like saffron breakfast kheer (an Indian rice pudding) or potato chowder with toasted chilli oil, that’s what.

Journeys in the Wild

The Secret Life of a Cameraman

By Gavin Thurston

February 2005: wildlife cameraman Gavin Thurston is in the Sabah, Borneo, filming giant bees. Co-ordinates: 5° 55’ 22’’ N 113° 3’ 6’’ E

Get far away from winter 2020 in Gavin Thurston’s memoir The Secret Life of a Cameraman. A diary over decades complete with dates, locations and geographic coordinates (not sure why but it’s impressive) the book follows his incredible and frequently alarming adventures filming nature programmes like Planet Earth II.

So if you want to hear what it’s like to endure tornado season in Alabama (34° 19’ 30’’ N 87° 46’ 54’’ W), go BTS at Glastonbury festival (51° 08’ 50’’ N 2° 34’ 41’’ W), or find chimpanzees in the Gualogo Triangle, Republic of Congo (COORDINATES WITHHELD, excitingly) well then this is the book for you.

Dark Skies

A Journey into the Wild Night

By Tiffany Francis

Disappear into the dark with environmentalist/writer/illustrator Tiffany Francis on a series of twilight adventures around the UK and beyond to explore exactly what we’re all missing in the midnight hours.

In this shadowy, shape-shifting book (is it memoir? Nature writing? History?) chase the Northern Lights, the midnight sun, memories from author’s past, and the odd ghost story through the nocturnal landscape.

A great winter reading list selection for after dark.

This Golden Fleece

A Journey through Britain’s Knitted History

By Esther Rutter

Here’s one to brace you against the cold winter weather: a woolly history of Britain – literally. Inveterate knitter Esther Rutter travels the length of the UK over the course of a year to unravel British history (sorry - the author mentions how wool has got into our language – she’s not wrong).

No knitted history would really be complete without a chapter in the Highlands, where knitting and weaving have been done for time immemorial. And although Esther doesn’t visit Skye per se, she works her way around nearby Torridon and Gairloch, knitting a sturdy pair of Highland Gairloch stockings in the process. Travelling through each season, this is a fascinating journey.

These books on our winter reading list should set you up for the next few weeks of wet & wild weather, whilst also nudging you forward to the year ahead. 2020, let’s go.

-ÒR x