Book Review: Wintering
Author: Katherine May
Publisher: Rider 2020
Genre: Autobiography
Pages: 276
Date Read: January-February ‘25
Blurb:
Wintering is a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our winters and summers are the ebb and flow of life.
My review:
I finished this book in the middle of February, and it is now March. It’s taken me a little while to write this review, but that is not because I didn’t enjoy the book. I did. It is a very thought-provoking book, and I think that I actually read it at just the right time in my life. As I’ve mentioned before, the last few years have been tough for me. This winter, what with having a new baby, I’ve been forced to slow down, reflect, recuperate and as I now seem to be coming out the other side from this difficult period, this book offered me the perfect opportunity to see how someone else has coped with difficult times and what things helped them. From the outset, the blurb on the back of the book, spoke to me. As the book quite rightly points out, we all go through periods of winter in our lives and the idea of life being in cycles similar to nature resonated a lot with me as a pagan. The concept certainly has similarities to the wheel of the year. So, the book didn’t really have to work hard to gain my interest. I always like learning about other people’s viewpoints and what makes them ‘tick’.
The book is broken down into sections labelled with the names of the months from October to March and also includes at epilogue and a prologue. The sections are then also broken down into chapters. These chapters revolve around different events and experiences that the author has lived through, however they also have other mini stories and reflections woven into them. In this way, time is very often warped, and it can sometimes be hard to keep track of events particularly if you are just dipping in and out of the book. I believe the idea behind the book is to give others hope of brighter things to come and to remind people that even when we go through bad times in our lives, we come out the other sides at least having learnt something. Almost like saying that the answers are within ourselves all along. Which is true of course. However, the end of the book also felt like a bit of an anti-climax. I guess I was wanting the author to have some really great breakthrough in her life or to have had some earth-shattering revelation. But ultimately, it is just stories and reflections from her life and the lives of other people whom she meets along the way.
As I’ve said, I did enjoy reading the book. The author has certainly taken the time to sit back and really examine winter from various different aspects including looking at how different countries and cultures approach it. You certainly get a sense of her fascination with the season. However, I did find that some of the links were a little tedious on occasion. That said, I would still recommend this book as a good reflective text. I can appreciate its poignancy although I don’t think that it is one that I would necessarily want to read again.
Star rating: 3.5 out of 5.
