Title: The Good Life
Author: Amos, Dorian
Published by: Eye Books Ltd
Year: 2009
First published: Eye Books Ltd, 2004
Date reviewed: 05.11
ISBN: 9781903070307

Subtitled "Up the Yukon Without a Paddle" this book is one of those "We wanted to get away from it all and although we hadn’t a clue what we were doing we somehow managed to survive" stories. And frankly it’s a miracle they did, ‘they’ being Dorian Amos, his wife Bridget (‘Bridge’) and their dog Boris. I lost count of how many times Dorian nearly froze to death, drowned, or could have died from usually self-inflicted injuries, actual or potential.

The problem is that I found it hard to care. I’m sure the Amos family are perfectly pleasant people, and they seem to have been accepted by the generally taciturn citizens of Dawson City near which they have made their home, but Amos’ writing isn’t up to conveying much of the personalities and emotions in their story. By the way, when I say "made their home" I mean that literally. They built their own timber cabin in the forests of Canada’s Yukon Province. He tries, but whether it’s canoing across half-frozen rivers, crashing dog-sleds, or driving his skidoo into the the icy water of the Yukon River, the tone is all the same.

Before they left England they went on one of Ray Mears’ Woodlore Wilderness Bushcraft courses. This was enough for Mears to write a foreword in which he guardedly says "[Their] adventures have both horrified me and made me laugh, truly ignorance is bliss". He must have despaired at times.

And that’s about it. They survive. They have a baby. Thay love each other, and they love their new life.

It’s not clear whether this is an example of vanity publishing, but it has many of the hallmarks. The author mentions he is dyslexic [p49], but the editor shouldn’t have missed so many persistent and annoying errors – "sheaf" instead of "sheath", "burgh" instead of "[ice]berg", and so on. My copy’s a second edition so the mistakes should have been spotted and corrected.