life on mars
DESCRIPTION
Life on Mars is about the freedom of childhood; the freedom of making a wood, a river, a beach your own. It's a celebration of a world that a child can reinvent in a million different ways, and of the days that I spent with my daughter, Isabel, in the forests and on the rope swings doing just that.TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
![Page 2: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
![Page 3: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
by Colin Pantall
![Page 4: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
When Isabel was a baby, I took her out for early morning walks by the River
Avon. The mist would hang over the river and we’d see Kingfishers diving for fish.
She’d sit against my chest in a Baby Bjorn, facing the world, taking in all the sites
and the sounds of the trees and the flowers and the weeds. We’d smell the smoke
that rose from fires at the campsite of lean-tos and benders that had popped up
across the river. Further down we’d see the informal clearing of undergrowth that
was taking place on a derelict patch of land by the Grosvenor Bridge. Strange
mounds started appearing and then patches of carpet.
As Isabel got older we returned to the strange mounds. They had become a set of
BMX jumps; during dry periods we’d see boys, and sometimes men, leaping around
the course. There were 24 jumps that could be taken consecutively over two
circuits. We watched them as flew over foxglove and comfrey, bypassing brambles,
hogweed and ragwort as they zipped around the jumps. We named the place
Bicycle Mountains and Isabel took to running around them as though she were on
a bicycle. I followed her, exhausted by the ups and downs of it all.
![Page 5: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
When Isabel was five, I passed my driving test and we bought a car. From the
window of the flat where we lived we could see a low escarpment with a tower at
one end. This was Brown’s Folly, a nature reserve that was home to ancient forest,
wildflower glades and Boris, the oldest horseshoe bat in the world. But for all the
idyllic nature, what made it most special was the weird topography. Brown’s Folly
had once been a site where Bath stone, the stone that Georgian Bath was built
with, was mined. Parts of the folly would be laid out like a tree-covered mogul with
outcrops of stone rising out of the leaf mould. Underneath the nature reserve was a
network of old mine-shafts led into an underground system of caves and tunnels
complete with tram lines and rinsing pools.
On the trees around the valley there were rope swings. Some of the swings you
could sit on, some you needed pushing, but the best one, Rope Swing Number Two,
was just for swinging. It was hanging from a branch on the side of an excavated
slope. We’d run down and jump off into a circle, taking care not to fall onto the
rocks and branches below, nor to hit back into the trunk of the tree, George of the
Jungle Style.
![Page 6: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
We went to Brown’s Folly every Saturday. We’d swing on ropes, race through the
forest, climb rockfaces, spot mushrooms, hide in dens and build imaginary camp
fires. As Isabel got older, we found logs to balance on. The logs got higher and
higher and trips to Brown’s Folly became a journey to the edge of my fear.
Brown’s Folly and Bicycle Mountains are places that have been reinvented by
history, industry and government. And every time we go there, we reinvent these
places again. We free them from their past, making a tree or a rock or a mound of
earth into something quite different. At weekends when we go camping in
Cornwall, Wales or Dorset, we find places where we climb and swing and imagine,
reinventing a place into something of our own making. And in the countryside of
the UK, however wild or natural, it seems as though the places we visit are always
being reinvented, that the agricultural, industrial or leisure undercurrents of
everywhere we step is being forgotten or destroyed by our very being there. This
book is about that, that freedom of making a place your own, a celebration of a
world that can be reinvented in a million different ways but can never be pinned
down.
![Page 7: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
![Page 8: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
![Page 9: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
![Page 10: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
![Page 11: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
![Page 12: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
![Page 13: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
![Page 14: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
![Page 15: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
![Page 16: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
![Page 17: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
![Page 18: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
![Page 19: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
![Page 20: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
![Page 21: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
![Page 22: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
![Page 23: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
![Page 24: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
![Page 25: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
![Page 26: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
![Page 27: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
![Page 28: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
![Page 29: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
![Page 30: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
![Page 31: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
![Page 32: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
![Page 33: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
![Page 34: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
![Page 35: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
![Page 36: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
![Page 37: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
![Page 38: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
![Page 39: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
![Page 40: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
![Page 41: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
![Page 42: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
![Page 43: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
![Page 44: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
![Page 45: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
![Page 46: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
![Page 47: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
![Page 48: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
![Page 49: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/49.jpg)
![Page 50: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/50.jpg)
![Page 51: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/51.jpg)
![Page 52: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/52.jpg)
![Page 53: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/53.jpg)
![Page 54: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/54.jpg)
![Page 55: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/55.jpg)
![Page 56: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/56.jpg)
![Page 57: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/57.jpg)
![Page 58: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/58.jpg)
![Page 59: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/59.jpg)
![Page 60: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/60.jpg)
![Page 61: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/61.jpg)
![Page 62: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/62.jpg)
![Page 63: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/63.jpg)
![Page 64: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/64.jpg)
![Page 65: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/65.jpg)
![Page 66: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/66.jpg)
![Page 67: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/67.jpg)
![Page 68: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/68.jpg)
![Page 69: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/69.jpg)
![Page 70: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/70.jpg)
![Page 71: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/71.jpg)
![Page 72: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/72.jpg)
![Page 73: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/73.jpg)
![Page 74: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/74.jpg)
![Page 75: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/75.jpg)
![Page 76: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/76.jpg)
![Page 77: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/77.jpg)
![Page 78: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/78.jpg)
![Page 79: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/79.jpg)
![Page 80: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/80.jpg)
![Page 81: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/81.jpg)
![Page 82: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/82.jpg)
![Page 83: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/83.jpg)
![Page 84: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/84.jpg)
![Page 85: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/85.jpg)
![Page 86: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/86.jpg)
![Page 87: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/87.jpg)
![Page 88: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/88.jpg)
![Page 89: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/89.jpg)
![Page 90: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/90.jpg)
![Page 91: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/91.jpg)
![Page 92: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/92.jpg)
![Page 93: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/93.jpg)
![Page 94: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/94.jpg)
![Page 95: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/95.jpg)
![Page 96: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/96.jpg)
![Page 97: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/97.jpg)
![Page 98: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/98.jpg)
![Page 99: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/99.jpg)
![Page 100: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/100.jpg)
![Page 101: Life on Mars](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020107/568c0f571a28ab955a93bdcd/html5/thumbnails/101.jpg)
The Beginning