Wonderment: A love affair with adventure, travel, writing, philosophy, and family life

Nigel Hey’s sixth book, Wonderment: A Love Affair with Adventure, Writing, Travel, Philosophy, and Family Life, is more than an autobiography about an English-American science writer -– it is a trip around the world and around the mind. The heart of this fast-paced story lies in its varied, thoughtful, and sometimes hilarious collection of memoirs about writing, printing, publishing, media, Native Americans, the American mountain states, world travel, and amateur theatre. These are linked with the author’s philosophical thoughts and observations on the trials and triumphs of a family life shared between London and New Mexico. Hey considers that his life has been both enriched and at times endangered by an apparently insatiable curiosity that has filled his world with adventures of mind and body. In his boyhood his parents take him to a new home, touching off a semi-nomadic five years that eventually take him to the American West, torn between a love of his native Lancashire and the unknowns of future life. Small-town realities in an all-Mormon community teach him the lessons of being an outsider and awake a spirit of independent thought and action. With his university years complete, he heads for his first fulltime job, in Bermuda, then a second in England. These mark the start of an exhilarating rollercoaster life in which he achieves professional success while fulfilling the responsibilities of parenthood and enduring the heartaches of two failed marriages. Throughout, he lives the life of a genuinely curious man, exploring the vestiges of colonial Spain that survive in the mountains of the American Southwest, driving a tunnel in the remote mountains of Greece, dancing with native Americans, uncovering the history of high-tech Soviet weapon science, exploring his Yorkshire and Lancashire roots, traveling the world. The story is laced with scores of real-life anecdotes as Nigel Hey explores his personal philosophy and tackles the biggest question of all – where does he really belong?

Review :
For me, what gives this book its special flavour is the sheer range of the author’s interests, his humorous but scrupulous account of events, and his willingness to explore possibilities beyond the purely cognitive, and reflect on the sense of mystery at the heart of things. It is a book that can be enjoyed by all who value life’s unending variety, in both its serious and humorous aspects, and above all by those who are interested in the reflections of a journalist who has devoted his career to giving wider currency to scientific thinking about the cosmos, and to new discoveries and their importance in our everyday lives. I enjoyed this book immensely. How Nigel Hey has crammed so many life experiences into a life fraught with occasional dread illnesses and difficult living conditions I’ll never understand, though the book offers insightful clues. For those of a philosophical bent, Hey shows that he has given a lot of thought to the meaning and conduct of life, and his relationships with family and friends. Though he may not have acquired the goal of serenity, it’s obvious that he is determined to continue on that path. If you go with him on this journey you’re in for an enlightening experience, embodying a great deal of triumph and some occasional tragedy. Nigel Hey is exactly the person you hope and expect would write an autobiography. He combines the essential components of an excellent memory, an eye for important details that are often missed, a sense of humour, and the writing ability one would expect from a professional. Wonderment is a different and fascinated look at the world and the people he’s known. In addition to producing an excellent and insightful story, Hey shines a new, thoughtful and entertaining light on a life well lived. Though coined as an autobiography, Nigel Hey’s new book is much more. For those wanting to find out how a world-class thinker comes to terms with problems that impact most people, for those with an appreciation for humour and adventure, or for those simply looking for an interesting and a stimulating escape, this book is a must read.