RIVERHEAD Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

I quite frankly found this a little hard to read given I have a severe form of Crohn's disease myself and really wanted to both sympathise and empathise with the author. I totally understand that not everyone is stoic, but the whole bit where she was signed-off sick but effectively misled her employers and went off on holidays just didn't sit right.Self-care does not need to be done in conjunction with deception and fraud. That and the lack of self-awareness and introspection for a book that was supposed to be about just that, made me rather miserable. She seems to have met some wonderful people yet learned nothing - perhaps this is because of her self-confessed "aspergers" or "autism", but the utter lack of empathy, hypochondria and narcissism on display made this a pointless and difficult book to read.I would add that there are a number of wonderful books about the concept of looking to the darkness and stillness of both the real and metaphorical winter she describes in order to heal - the author seemed to understand none of this. Perhaps other people might find this a revelation, but it was deeply frustrating to see her speak to so many (clearly) wise people and utterly miss their point. A deeply disappointing read.

I read this beautiful book in one late night and very early morning: it creates a weather and time system of its own that I wanted to stay in. Braided with Katherine May's own experiences of hard or 'frozen' times are stories of her friends from other, colder climates, as well as fascinating historial and cultural perspectives on 'wintering' - resting, regrouping, lying fallow. I was particularly thrilled to learn about the pre-Industrial rest pattern of first and second sleeps. A book to gift to loved ones who are at the start of a big and unchosen life change, or to keep nearby for our own frozen times.

Wintering is an evocative ode to winter hibernation. A glorious blend of storytelling, natural history and culture, May's words are packed with warmth and humour. This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, and I plan to take some time out to re-read it each year.

Some lovely writing and interesting range of topics covered. However I couldn’t escape the feeling of wanting to give the author a good slap and tell her to get a grip. She unfortunately reminded me of a co worker who always needs a duvet day, but still manages to travel extensively, whilst leaving normal life tasks like pitching up to work and sensibly rearing a family to everyone else. On a couple of occasions she mentions her money concerns. ‘We should probably move into that caravan in the woods because it’s the only thing we could reliably afford’. Well how about knocking the expensive jaunts to Iceland on the head, fronting up, and doing a shift at work like everyone else?

What Katherine May refers to as wintering are those times in our live when we have to retreat from the 'real' world for one reason or another. She looks at times in her own life when she has done this, and interviews others, drawing parallels through her strong connection with the cycles of nature to make sense of those times when perhaps we all feel less than. I read this during a particularly bleak period of my own wintering and this was a huge comfort to me and helped me pass through it with more grace than I've managed to muster in a long time. So much of what she writes really speaks to me and I know it is a book I will turn to time and time again.