As Earth's ecology continues to deteriorate, humanity will be increasingly confronted by the unavoidable truths of species extinction and environmental collapse brought about by human profligacy. Such sins will be ignored for a little while longer, but not when sharks and whales, tigers and wolves, disappear from a world in which diversity is little more than a fleeting memory. And in that grayer world, in that world of concrete and glass, we will read books about past times, times in which man thought nothing of devoting his life to the simple, childlike enjoyment of watching animals. And amongst that pile of quiet, thoughtful literature will surely be this effort from Mr. King.
Shetland Diaries is a slim but heartfelt chronicle of two separate journeys, taken in 2008 and 2009, to Shetland, those most isolated of Scottish isles which, as the author points out early on, are nearer to the Arctic than to London. These twin adventures are undertaken by Mr. King, a British, wildlife filmmaker, who, together with his young family, enthusiastically endeavors to record seals and otters, puffins and storm petrels, in all their natural glory. Under normal circumstances, capturing such wildlife on camera should be a simple task, especially for one of Mr. King's expertise. But in the remote Shetlands, where the population is scarce, the winds fierce, and the shores lashed by the timeless fury of the northern Atlantic, such simple efforts become, for Mr.King, the things of Herculean legend, tales to be told to friends and family. Despite these challenges, the author manages to capture, for his British audiences back home, the beauty of life beyond civilization, that great diversity of existence that persists in the vastness of seas and skies too cold and too tumultuous for our soft, human liking.
Though Shetland Diaries is not without its flaws, Mr. King has succeeded in producing for his readers a thorough and entertaining travel log of a place few of them will ever see. For not only has he turned his naturalist's eye towards the various engaging species which populate, utilize and beautify Shetland with their glory, he is a keen observer of its buoyant and playful human culture which, unsurprisingly, is thickly seasoned with Nordic influences. Judiciously edited tales of their fun-filled festivals amuse as much as reconstructions of their salt-of-the-earth humanism warmed the cockles of this cynic's heart. But while Mr. King strikes the proper balance between the loveliness of nature, the wonder of animal behavior, and the kindness of down-home strangers, he has reserved too sizeable a portion of his tale for his own self-importance. For those of us who will never meet him, we care far more about seeing out through his eyes, not in towards his preoccupations, which are many, from his typically adorable child, to his, of course, lovely and patient wife. I'm sure Mr. King is a kind and generous soul, but I am here for the animals and the visuals, not for the vagaries of the author's home life, or the pratfalls of his technological setbacks.
Nonetheless, this remains work that both warms the heart and sobers the soul. For it exposes us to the best and the worst of humanity, our kindness and our destructiveness. In both exposing and re-enforcing this, Mr. King has done us all a service. (3/5 Stars)
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