[Ad-gifted] Dan Richards is a journalist by profession; a writer of Sunday Times bestselling books and broadcaster with BBC Radio 4 – specifically the series titled Only After Dark, aired in 2022 and like Overnight, featuring stories from the nocturnal world.
Published by Canongate, Overnight is a collection of short stories that follow the different lives of various night workers through their nocturnal shifts. From the ferrymen who race through the dark waters around Orkney and Shetland to get their passengers home in time for breakfast to the vertigo-defying dock crane operator unloading containers twenty metres up in the black night sky… not to mention meanderings into the birthplace of Moominland Midwinter… Richards takes the reader straight into the nightly lives of the men and women who keep the show on the road while the rest of us mere mortals are sleeping comfortably in our beds.
Intertwined with this deep dive into the dark is the personal story of Richards’ own experiences – adventures up a mountainside with his father, lifelong battles with insomnia, and a rather harrowing account of how he suffered with Covid during the pandemic (when he was so poorly he was taken into intensive care).
What I thought of Overnight
Overnight is a book at once candid, forthright and very detailed – blending factual detail with pathos and humanity. I took the book with me on a warm, sunny afternoon on a family fishing trip, and started to read under the trees on the bank of the Cauldon Canal (while the kids and friends caught bushes and each other’s clothing as they learnt to cast a bit further down the water’s edge). This is the perfect book for this kind of scenario: you have a couple of hours free and you would quite like to take a book and sit down somewhere for a bit.
Each chapters tells a different story, yet these are juxtaposed and linked through the author’s own lived experience. Toward the end of Overnight, he returns to the hospital to investigate the insomnia that has dogged him for years. Drawn by the idea of being ‘wired up’ and I think, partly because of the journalist he is, eager to see what data will emerge when he becomes the experiment, Richards allows us into his personal space once more on a quest for answers about his health and wellbeing after the ravages of Covid.
It clearly left its damage, one way or another. Richards suffered tinnitus, as did I after the infection – slowly fading for both of us. It also gripped his life in other ways. He is eager to overcome the darker side (pardon the pun) of the pandemic and the havoc it wreaked on his mental and physical health – something that we can all strongly relate to – and allow us to go there with him and also acknowledge what it may have done to each of us in varying degrees.
Woven into the narrative are snippets of the lives of other writers and artists. Ernest Hemingway did this nicely in A Moveable Feast – a book I love. Richards takes on the life of Tove Jansson in his chapter, Moominland Midwinter, taking us to her homeland and writing an authentic if brief account of the author’s daily life, inspired by meeting Tove’s niece and exploring the birthplace of the original Moomins.
In short, this will be a great holiday read. It could be an airport book, a beach book… something for a quiet moment in the holiday house when the others are busy elsewhere. Maybe it is simply a good read before bed at night (if you are able to sleep) or even the book you pick up when you cannot sleep!
Where you can get your copy of Overnight and how much it cost?
The paperback copy of Overnight retails for £10.29 while the Kindle edition is available for £6.99 and the hardcover for £16.75 from various bookstores as well as Amazon.
About the Book
Publisher : Canongate Books
Print length : 384 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1838857509
Item weight : 600 g
Dimensions : 15.88 x 3.18 x 24.13 cm
About the Author
Dan Richards is the co-author of Holloway (with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood), and the author of The Beechwood Airship Interviews, Climbing Days, Outpost and Overnight. Only After Dark, a BBC Radio 4 series about the nocturnal world, was broadcast to acclaim in 2022. Dan has written for the New York Times, Guardian, Economist and Esquire.
Review by: Metia Bethell Egan
You may also want to read this:
Book Review: The Farm by Grace Olson
Book Review: The Yard: How A Horse Healed My Heart by Grace Olson
Book Review: The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking
* We were sent a copy of the book in return for a feature. All opinions are our own.
22 comments
This sounds like a really good one! I absolutely love the setting. it sounds like a great read.
It certainly was. I enjoyed reading the book very much and read it quickly too.
This sounds like such a fascinating and thoughtful read. The blend of personal stories and history is compelling.
It is a good blend and one that will captivate you
I am not sure I read anything by Dan Richards but Overnight seems an amazing one to read. Thank you so much for the honest review. I will get it.
You are so welcome, we love reading and it is only right that we share our review of the books we gread
It is so neat to read about someone’s life and understand about the history around the place. It sounds like such a good read.
It is a good book and I would certainly recommend it
This book sounds terrific! I like that it’s a collection of short stories, so one could read a chapter/story a day. I’ll look into getting it.
I love reading short stories too as it makes the read quicker and the stories more interesting
Night workers are rarely noticed unless something goes wrong, which makes these quiet lives fascinating to read for me. Thank you!
It is always interesting to see how other people work and live especially when we all sleep at night
Overnight by Dan Richards* sounds like an awesome to pick up. Thank you so much for the recommendation.
You are so welcome, we love sharing good books
This sounds like an interesting book to read. I love learning more about other peoples experiences.
It sure is a lovely book to read and it makes a fab gift to a friend too.
Have an overseas flight coming up and this is exactly what I’m looking to bring with. Love the idea of incorporating the snippets of other artists.
Absoluely, a fabulous summer/holiday book to take with you
It looks like a great book to read. I would love to check it out soon. Thank you for the recommendation.
You are so welcome and hope you enjoy the read
I’ll be taking a 12-hour flight next month, and this sounds like the perfect airport read. Thank you for sharing your review. You’ve definitely convinced me to pick up a copy before my trip
It definitely is a great book to take it with you on holiday, I bet you would enjoy reading this on the flight