Fierce Appetites - Lessons From My Year of Untamed Thinking by Elizabeth Boyle is structured in 12 chapters, each representing one month in the year 2020. Boyle manages to seamlessly blend elements of her own personal life with the stories and tales from her field of study as Head of Early Irish at Maynooth University and Anglo Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies in which she has a doctorate from Cambridge University.
Drawing on Irish myths and sagas from 5th-12th centuries - part of the Middle Ages and medieval period - the 12 essay topics include: grief, journeys, inheritance, time, bodies, memory and more. From January to December, the author does mention the pandemic in order to touch on her living circumstances, the isolation of lockdown and the ways she manages to keep her students engaged, but this - thankfully - isn't a covid memoir.
Within each chapter, the author shares autobiographical information about herself, right alongside ancient stories and texts from medieval Ireland and somehow manages to make it work. Not your typical medieval historian, Elizabeth Boyle discloses to the reader many times that she left her child with her daughter's father in order to pursue her desire for knowledge and self fulfilment in another country. The separation and guilt she bears continues to surface in the essays and she boldly remains unafraid to share details of her alcoholism and sex life and the fact that she was 'the other woman'. In addition to her love of heavy metal music, I found these personal insights incongruous with her smooth and polished accent and method of delivery in the audiobook.
I imagine Dr Elizabeth Boyle is a favourite amongst her university students, despite - or perhaps a direct result of - her intimate disclosures. She's able to relate the challenges of our everyday lives in the present to medieval Irish mythology in a stimulating and nuanced way, making it easy to see why she's at the top of her field.
Fierce Appetites by Elizabeth Boyle is recommended listening for those who enjoy Irish history and memoir, a unique combination in this case.
