Nightwalking: Four Journeys into Britain After Dark

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The winner of the Landerneau Children’s Book Prize, this French import is a deep and amazing read. It invites us all to think about adventuring out into the world in the dark, discovering how the world feels with nature around us, darkness, summer heat and wonder. The text in the book is simple, guiding us through the night’s adventure, pointing out what can be seen and heard, and allowing us all to marvel at the world covered in night. The text never gets in the way of our amazement, instead encouraging us to see more and play along. This is a book about family life, about attitudes to children, about the burden of childcare and the sometimes devastating effects this can have upon a relationship, and Moss' portrait of the frustrations involved is often painfully familiar. In particular, she captures the toddler's disorientating commentary on everything, dizzily weaving fragments of well-known children's books into the narrative. The largest change had come slightly earlier, with the introduction of street lighting during (appropriately) the Enlightenment. Although for citizens living away from the main thoroughfares the nights remained “nasty, brutish, and all too long”, as Beaumont neatly observes, for others street lighting completely transformed London. Soon the popular understanding of “nightlife” had expanded to include entertainment as well as thieves lurking in the shadows. Not only did the theatres thrive, pools of gaslight added a theatrical glow to ordinary activities. Suddenly the city was full of spotlights that anyone could step into. Every street corner was potentially the location of a new nocturnal drama. Not until 1827 was the ancient legislation against nightwalking finally repealed in England. However, human perception and the law often move at different speeds, and even though it was no longer a criminal offence to stroll or saunter at night, that did not prevent a newly formed police force from detaining anyone who gave cause for suspicion, even if that amounted to little more than looking a bit shifty. Who walks alone in the streets at night? The sad, the mad, the bad. The lost, the lonely. The sleepless, the homeless. All the city’s internal exiles. The night has always been the time for daylight’s dispossessed – the dissident, the different. Walking alone at night in the city by both men and women has, since time immemorial, been interpreted as a sign of moral, social or spiritual dereliction.

This ended up being rather surprising. First, I really struggled to get going with this book. I wasn’t sure that I was going to enjoy it. It also took me a week to read, which for me is rather a long time given the size of the book. However I think that in the end, reading this book slowly is what made me enjoy it more. It let me think, it let me soak it all up.Keep an eye out for wildlife: Any night time wildlife encounters in the UK are almost certainly likely to be benign, but if you’re worried it’s worth researching which animals are common to your local area so you know what to expect. Foxes, owls, bats, badgers and deer are more common at night, but the main thing is just to try to be aware of your surroundings. Listen and look for animals, not only so you can enjoy seeing them but also so you can respond if necessary. At night, the normal rules of Nature do not apply. In the night-wood I have met a badger coming the other way, tipped my cap, said hello. The animals do not expect us humans to be abroad in the dark, which is their time, when the world still belongs to them. THE NIGHT WALK takes the reader on a walk at night through the village and into the wilderness. Parents wake their two children early to go for a hike. They take note of the hotel that is still lit and the last house in town before heading into the magical forest to the lake and up a hill to see the effervescent sunrise. The book captures the feelings of the walk not only through the text but also through the carefully drawn and colored illustrations that feature only blue and yellow.

The team will recommend starting times depending on the time of year and, while every effort is made to chase the clouds away, sometimes we can’t guarantee views of the stunning sunrises/sunsets that are often photographed! You can, however, be sure of an unforgettable experience and the chance to see Yr Wyddfa in a completely new way. Moving to a global scale, what would I pawn for sleep? Would I, given the choice, have peace for Palestine or twelve hours in bed? Clean water for the children of Africa or a week off motherhood? The advent of carbon-neutral industrial processes or a month's unbroken nights? It's a good thing Satan doesn't come and chat to the mothers of sleepless toddlers in the middle of the night." Today, more than ever, solitary walking at night in the streets of the city does not necessarily mean deviant movement. It may well be perfectly legitimate, purposeful. Contemporary capitalist society requires what Jonathan Crary has identified as the despoliation of sleep in the interests of maximising the individual’s potential – both as a producer and a consumer – for generating profit. The political economy of the night, in this dispensation, means that plenty of people have to commute after dark, sometimes on foot, sometimes across considerable distances.

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In all fairness the book shows both the highs and lows of motherhood, and it is but one perspective. If falling asleep isn’t possible, it might be a good idea to get up and do something else for a while instead!

Although the resolution of the central 'mystery' (where did the baby's skeleton unearthed in the garden come from?) is not terribly surprising, the structure of the book IS: Moss alternates the main first person narrative with letters from some 130 years previous (NOT 200, as stated in the synopsis!), as well as entries from narrator Anna's book she is writing, and relevant quotes from various authorities on childrearing (primarily Anna Freud). It all makes for a stimulating and unusual read, and as this is the first in a loosely related trilogy, am looking forward to continuing with the next two volumes.

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It is a fitting climax to a book that remains personal in tone even when it is flexing its considerable intellectual muscle. Occasionally, Beaumont’s style can be cloudily academic, with sentences about “the consolidation of urban capitalism and its attendant class formations” and a generous sprinkling of references to Foucault, Adorno, Benjamin and co, but for the most part it is sharp and precise in its appreciation of London’s messy charms. Final verdict: With fantastic illustrations and lyrical prose, THE NIGHT WALK captures the wonder and magic of a walk through the night leading to a stunning sunrise. Recommend for preschool through elementary school aged readers.