Delicate and Subtle Illumination

Many years ago, when I was just a boy, the night sky seemed much blacker than it does today, but the stars seemed much brighter as well. Camping one long past night at Ft. Stevens State Park, I vividly recall lying on my back with my head outside the tent, looking up at a sky infinitely decorated with the brilliance of more stars than it was possible to number. It may be fantasy, but I can also recall seeing on that night the arm of the Milky Way – something I now must travel to the opposite corner of Oregon to see clearly. I also remember spending more time outside at night than it seems I do today. There was a freedom to the night then, a magic to be found there that was inaccessible in the daytime.

I still enjoy the night – yet now it’s for the peace and quiet I find in it. The stars seem much less bright, and the magic so much more difficult to feel. I also now tend to carry a small torch when setting out into the darkness – something I would rarely have thought necessary, or even desirable, in my youth. Yet on those nights when the Moon is bright, something from the distant past urges me not to use it and trust to Selene’s own softly reflected light to illuminate my path.

Perhaps this life-long love of the night and it’s natural lights is what so drew me to Matt Gaw’s Under the Stars; A Journey Into Light. With the intention of discovering just what we moderns have lost by filling our lives with artificial lights, Mr. Gaw set out into the night in different locations across the UK to explore our planet’s natural sources of light under a variety of conditions. From open moon-lit countryside, to star-bedecked seacoast shore, to the enveloping blackness under a dense forest canopy, to the dark sky reserve island of Coll – the description of which he presents is so enticing that were it not for family and occupational responsibilities I would already be there.

For those who might not be familiar with the concept of dark sky, the increasing lack of it all across the globe has been very much the subject of increased attention as of late. A sizable portion of life on Earth evolved in a balance of daylight and darkness, and when this balance is disturbed, much as it now has been by the perpetual daylight made possible by technology, disruptions on a vast number of ecological strata take place at levels of significance we are now only very much beginning to comprehend. From the migration patterns of birds, to the life cycles of insects, to detrimental physiological and psychological effects upon our own species, our modern pushing back the boundaries of the night is increasingly seen as problematic at best. Indeed, the International Dark-Sky Association, was founded and works continuously to bring attention to this modern diminishment of darkness and to educate all who will listen about its effects. However, all too often, discussions of dark sky take place within the not always most outwardly communicative world of astronomy, which is why it is so heartening when a writer much better known for work in the nature genre takes it up as a subject, and more importantly does so with a clear and nuanced understanding of it.

Well known for his highly praised 2018 book The Pull of the River; A Journey into the Wild and Watery Heart of Britain, as well as for his writings in The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times, Mr. Gaw writes with a style that is particularly sensitive to the nuances of his subjects, while at the same time never hesitating to interject into his narrative an enlightening bit of history or science wherever it will be most effective in conveying to his readers the overall richness of the relevant idea or moment being presented. The combined effect of this style, as applied to the recounting of his nocturnal explorations in Under the Stars, is a deeply personal didacticism that leaves the reader both emotionally as well as intellectually enriched.

Indeed, not only did I discover in Mr. Gaw’s chapters much that I did not know about the relationship past generations had with the night – how they traversed the land during the daily periods of darkness, or in regard to particular civil regulations, how they were sometimes legally managed during them – I was also reminded of the magic I once myself so easily found in the landscape after the Sun had set for the day. It made me eager to walk out into the night of our own small town; to stare up at the Moon and the stars with something more than a passing glance, and then to look around at my surroundings in visual experimentation, much as Mr. Gaw did, in search of what from the daytime could be still be seen, what could not, and even to seek out perhaps what could only bee seen with the retiring of the Sun from the sky.

When one is so fortunate as to discover a writer who can both inform as well as inspire with his (or her, as the case may be) words, note must be taken – and of Mr. Gaw I have most certainly taken note, written in crepuscular blue ink upon the pages of the journal in which I make record of those authors and works I never wish to forget. For all those who may not have previously considered just how much light there is to be found in the night – both literally as well as figuratively – I urge you to become acquainted with Under the Stars, and from it with the night itself. Those who already find themselves drawn to the night should need no prompting to seek it out as well, for in its pages they will find a kindred spirit in Mr. Gaw, as well as much information they likely don’t yet know about the wee small hours, when those things that are often hidden from our view by the brightness of the Sun or the harsh glare of electric lamps may be clearly perceived by the illumination from more delicate and subtle sources of light.

Title: Under the Stars; A Journey Into Light

Author: Matt Gaw

Publisher: Elliott & Thompson

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9781783964635

Pages: 208 pp.

Published: February 2020

In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce this review was provided gratis to the reviewer by the publisher.

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