Cracking reviews for 60 Degrees North by Malachy Tallack

‘A subtle, thoughtful study of life on the sixtieth parallel’ […] ‘I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learnt a lot’
- Sara Wheeler, Financial Times

‘A promising debut from the new school of travel writing examines the significance of place and what it means to belong […] Where I… cleave to Tallack is in his belief that our relationship with place is fundamentally emotional (or should be)’ […] ‘This… is a book about belonging rather than a conventional travelogue. Tallack is one of a burgeoning group of young travel writers – of whom Robert Macfarlane is the cynosure – who have reinvigorated their increasingly tired genre with elements of psychogeography: the study of how places make us feel.’
- Will Self, Guardian, Travel Book of the Week

‘It is a brave book in its honesty and self-exposure, I think, and a beautiful book in terms of the subtlety of its thinking and the quality of its descriptive prose, that at times possesses the lucidity of the northern light in which so much of it is set.’
- Robert MacFarlane

‘Malachy Tallack is the real deal, a writer given over to pure curiosity, honest witness and that most precious of gifts, an unselfconscious sense of wonder. Sixty Degrees North reveals, not just a vibrant new voice, but a wise, questioning and highly sophisticated talent.’
- John Burnside

‘Elegant, meditative and wry. . . Tallack takes the reader on some fascinating excursions.’
- Gavin Francis

‘If you’re going to bring out a book of this type – and with “North” in the title – you’d better have something important to say and a fresh, exciting way of saying it; the fact that first-time author Malachy Tallack succeeds on both counts is nothing short of remarkable… he takes the brave step of putting himself right at the heart of the story, using his own experiences to ask searching, never-less-than fascinating questions about identity, homecoming and what it means to truly belong to a place… For anyone with an interest in how we construct answers to that most straightforward-seeming of questions – “where are you from?” – it is essential reading.’
- Roger Cox, Scotland on Sunday

‘This is a beautifully introspective book about the search for home and identity amidst the changes of time and the trappings of place.’
- Rebecca Foster, Nudge Book

‘There is compelling honesty and much wisdom in Tallack’s brave adventure’ […] ‘Malachy is a fine, sensitive writer with an eye for detail and a talent for descriptive prose’ […]
- Gavin Bell, Herald

‘Experiences of hospitality, hitchhiking, sea travel and northern skies are thorough, precise and often funny, and observations are thoughtful…. Tallack is a modern pilgrim and 60 Degrees North is an inspiring pursuit of knowledge, both inner and outer, as well as a tribute to hardy, often-maligned cultures, achieving the tricky balance of intertwining a intelligent, trustworthy voice with personal experience.’ – Caught by the River

‘Follow the latitude line from Malachy Tallack’s home on Shetland and you voyage to Greenland, Canada, Siberia and Scandinavia before coming home, a wiser and more grounded person. We learn more of his troubled background as he travels West, troubles that include the very notion of the idea of home and surviving in often marginalised and alienating environments. You need to be strong and self-reliant to survive in such lands, some like Siberian political prisoners had no choice others have been drawn to live in these lands. This journey reveals how landscape shapes us – has shaped Malachy Tallack, that national boundaries are just sketch marks on a deeper more meaningful division of land and sea.’
- Sue Baker, Love Reading

‘It’s always a lovely surprise to pick up a book you’re not really sure you want to read or not, only to find that you can’t put it down. 60 Degrees North by Shetland author, Malachy Tallack falls into that category. Not only did I find it hard to put down, but I’ve been recommending it to anyone willing to listen since…. An intimate, brave and honest book, it has sparked a desire in me to learn more about some of these places for myself. A five star read from start to finish, Malachy Tallack is definitely a name to look out for in the future.’
- Press & Journal – Book of the Week

‘Malachy Tallack’s 60 Degrees North, a mystical meditation on the parallel line which cuts across Shetland, Scandinavia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland’ […] ‘Written with a real feeling for place, Tallack certainly packs in plenty of history and notes his encounters with local characters never less than sympathetically. He also paints some lovely imagery: arctic terns ‘pinned like little crucifixes against the sky’ and a sea otter ‘as sleek as a polished walnut’.’
- The List