It’s that time again for six degrees of separation hosted by Kate over at booksaremyfavouritenadbest and it starts with ‘Our wives under the sea’ by Julia Armfield. I haven’t read this book but I am able to link it to ‘I am an Island’ by Tamsin Calidas who suffers loss, grief, loneliness, severe physical and mental pain and finds herself on the edge of the sea. One of the ways that she manages to find her back is by swimming (brrrr) off the coast of a remote Scottish Island, with some beautifully moving passages.

More beautifully descriptive passages of nature can be found in ‘The salt path’ by Raynor Winn who sets off with her husband to walk along the coast in South West England after he receives devastating medical news and they lose their house. Ultimately a story of redemption through nature and an uplifting tale.

To continue with the theme of putting one foot in front of the other, ‘Walking with ghosts’ by Gabriel Byrne sees the Dublin born actor reflecting on his early years and later life in a memoir that is so well written, at times lyrical and reflective and a really enjoyable read.

Byrne was a plumber at one stage, and another man who would have worked with pipes was Billy Connolly, who describes how he worked as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards on the Clyde in his wonderful memoir ‘Windswept and Interesting.’

Connolly was a folk singer in the seventies with Gerry Anderson in the folk rock band The humblebums and another book about a group of people playing similar music is ‘Utopia Avenue’ by David Mitchell, an enjoyable novel about a band that burns brightly during the tumultuous sixties, full of great cameos that also captures the social history of the times. One of the most popular beat combos of those times were of course…

The Beatles and I absolutely savoured ‘The Lyrics - Paul McCartney’ where he looks at the story behind 154 of his songs, set over 800 pages, using handwritten lyrics and photos. It felt like the great man himself was sitting beside you, reminiscing about his life. Best enjoyed with a glass of something and the music ready to go.

That’s it for another month, from Under the sea to Paul McCartney via a remote Scottish island (not the mull of Kintyre or using a yellow submarine) to the south west coast of England, Dublin, the Glasgow shipyards, and the swinging sixties in London