Challenging Space and Time

This chapter is a joint analysis of the two works named in the title; a biography of Ferrier’s grandfather, and an autobiography. They are analysed in parallel through shared themes and structures, such as ‘the natural world’, ‘space and time’, ‘memory and identity’ and ‘war and the word’. Ferrier’s proliferating style that truly comes into its own in these works is also examined in detail. The notion of ‘inter-identity’ is created and offered as a new way of thinking about individuals and how they relate to their environments, both human and non-human, alive and not, in Ferrier’s work; the chapter offers a reading of both books using the framework of Environmental Humanities. Last but not least, Ferrier’s steadfast faith in the power of words to defeat death is introduced, in the context of the experience of war in both the biography and autobiography.