It’s a quiet, odd kind of story. Their relationship is very endearing. Neither militant or full-on hippies, but more concerned with what the book feels to be attempting to convey: Anyone with a radical idea can add another layer of mythos to culture. In this case in a very literal sense, as they use the land in a harmless way to produce art that hopefully entices people to question the nature of their society, and what they think they know about the world. Hoping to unconventionally and originally revolutionary, leaving an indelible mark. Redbone and Calvert are misfits in late 1980's England. Redbone, a self-identified crust punker, lives in his camper van, smokes a fair amount of weed and inks breathtakingly intricate designs in a sketchbook. Calvert is a veteran of the 1982 war in the Falkland Islands. That brief battle did permanent psychic and physical trauma to the young soldier and he hides in small house during the day, curtains drawn against the sun that causes intense pain to eyes damaged in a bomb blast. Moving and exhilarating, tender and slyly witty, The Perfect Golden Circle is a captivating novel about the futility of war, the destruction of the English countryside, class inequality – and the power of beauty to heal trauma and fight power. Crop circles require meticulous planning. As well as weathering minor inconveniences such as hay fever and rain, the pair must also remain vigilant against interruption. As it turns out, these rural nights are buzzing not just with wildlife but with fly-tippers, confused nonagenarians, and sloshed lords of the manor. A book is shot through with a romantic, even mystical radicalism of the kind that William Blake would have approved of. * DAILY TELEGRAPH *

Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers Book Review: The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers

This brilliant, funny, and delightful novel is about misfits finding purpose, and the redemptive power of artistic expression even in the bleakest of circumstances.”— Booklist, starred review The Perfect Golden Circle staggers the reader with its wit and beauty and the power of its charged poetry. Myers offers both a soulful portrait of a friendship between two damaged, resilient men and a series of striking glimpses into war, mythology, politics, history, the natural world and art. Like the creations of its protagonists, the impressions this novel leaves are majestic, mysterious and lasting -- SAM LIPSYTESome highlights will include hiking along tectonic plates, seeing an 100 foot geyser shoot out the ground, and potentially getting up close and personal to a bright blue waterfall and river. An odd and winsome pleasure: a novel of friendship, collaboration, and environmental guerrilla art * KIRKUS * You can take a look at the Iceland Helpful Tipsarticle I have up that speaks a bit more about car rentals. Once you have your car, you can simply put in the attractions into the GPS or Google Maps, and start your way around the circle.

Perfect Golden Circle — men behaving mysteriously The Perfect Golden Circle — men behaving mysteriously

Over the course of a burning hot summer, two very different men - traumatized ex-soldier Calvert, and affable and chaotic Redbone - set out nightly in a decrepit camper van to undertake an extraordinary project. Under cover of darkness, the two men traverse the fields of rural England in secret, forming crop circles in elaborate and mysterious patterns, designs so intricate that they inspire the kind of awe that the ancient Gothic cathedral in nearby Salisbury once inspired. If you happened to get a very early start and still have some fuel left in the tank you can also add in the Reykjadalur Hot Springs Hike between the Kerid Crater and Reykjavik. Tied together by the circle makers’ code of silence the pair weave their magic through the darkness of a gorgeously framed natural landscape. But don’t expect a singularly jolly romp down the tramlines. Even in the most beautiful corners of agricultural England the excesses, violence vulnerability and loneliness of the human condition are never far away. They constantly haunt the thoughts and words of Calvert and Redbone and those they stumble across in the early hours. Wir haben kolonisiert und geplündert, und dann, wenn wir unschuldige Menschen abgeschlachtet und ihrer Schätze beraubt hatten, sind wir mit Reichtümern heimgekehrt. […] Das Meer ist eine Grenze, eine Begrenzung, und da wir auf einer Insel leben, bilden wir uns ein, wir wären etwas Besonderes. Aber das sind wir nicht. Wir haben bloß Angst, mehr nicht. Wir haben Angst vor der Welt. Und das erzeugt Arroganz und Ignoranz, und Ignoranz ist der Tod des Anstands.“ (S. 67) Nobody does troubled figures in a stunning landscape like Ben Myers. He’s a major force in the English novel and he gets better with every book.” — Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with FeathersThis is the second novel by Benjamin Myers that I have read, Beastings being the first. The Perfect Golden Circle couldn’t be more different to Beastings, which was far darker and written in a completely different style. Yet, the beauty of Benjamin’s writing persists across both novels. I really do need to read more of his work, I love the way he writes. Take this, for example, which is about an eclipse: Note that one of the attractions listed below (Bruarfoss) is usually not included in group tours – you might be able to ask to add it in to a private tour though. 3) When To Go Around