Adventurers Fenced in on the Tellurian Kingdom,

After bedding in as editor-in-chief of The Bellyaches, I became aware of how much of a privilege it is to write free of charge to the world. Rather than underestimate the value of this gift and continue writing my cat stories unabatedly, I decided I should try to repay Blogger.com; the only way I knew how was to take an interest in the other blogspots. I like reading the music reviews and I occasionally mull over the political ramblings of people like Bawbags and his linkees, I found the stream of police officer blogs disturbing but I strived and failed to find other people who could write cat stories quite as brilliant as my own. Andrew Collins writes cat stories but they are actually cat stories. I cannot find a blog that reviews music, books, radio and TV, discusses important issues integral to the future of the planet such as global warming, UFOs and ghosts, employs a fantastic photographer and has its own innovative and completely genuine political party.

Those fanatics who follow The Bellyaches, the 2-strong massive, would surely enjoy the book that I have just finished reading, Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth by Andrew Smith. Moondust is the fascinating story of how journalist Andrew Smith attempted to interview all of the surviving Apollo astronauts who had set foot upon the Moon. The feelings, fears and hopes Andrew gleans from the Moonwalkers, compounded with the scrupulous research he carried out, evident from the many references to key memoirs, makes this a complete and incredibly insightful biography of the Apollo programme.

In Moondust, the lives of the astronauts before, during and after their trips Moon are recounted. The politics involved in crew selection and relationships between the astronauts are uncovered and discussed; some of the revelations are quite surprising – for instance, Apollo 11 is generally perceived as a triumph of teamwork and human ingenuity, but at the helm of the mission were 3 astronauts who, by all accounts, barely shared a working relationship and remain, to this day, remote from each other. After returning to Earth, almost all the astronauts encountered difficulties; after having been to the Moon, they understandably struggled to find purpose to their lives on Earth and some regret the way they used the extremely short time they were allowed to spend on the surface of the Moon.

Smith doesn’t just concentrate on the astronauts; much of the book is about himself and his own emotions during his journey, he notes his private thoughts that occur during his interviews and they’re often amusing – the kind of thoughts that should remain as thoughts and as they would surely offend those in their presence – as when he describes his struggle to tap into the personal emotions of Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt and his cynicism over some of the spiritual ideas elaborated by Apollo 14 man Edgar Mitchell or Apollo 16’s Charlie Duke. The book also gains a sense of completeness from Smith’s personal memories what life was like as an 8-year old boy at the time of Apollo 11, important but not too complicated discussion of American politics and popular culture – unsurprisingly, given Smith’s work for Melody Maker, music is referred to frequently throughout the book, and Smith includes interesting and often humorous quotes from interviews he carried out with musicians such as Robert Plant and Wayne Coyne.

Smith asks of all of the Moonwalkers how they felt about the fact that soon there’d be nobody left on this planet that had been to the Moon; this doesn’t draw interesting answers from any of the astronauts due its solemn nature, it’s a very sad thought and it makes Apollo seem more mysterious than ever. The people who were involved in one of the greatest human triumphs ever will soon be gone, and with any return to the Moon or a journey to Mars being only remote possibilities in the far-off futures, the success and the technological momentum of Apollo were never capitalised upon and as such the 12 gallant Moonwalkers’ legacies were betrayed and possibly destroyed.

Moondust is a captivating tale and although the 9 surviving Moonwalkers are the heroes; to me, Andrew Smith is just as inspiring. I can identify with his writing style, he tries to incorporate many strands in to the story - perhaps too for some authors – because he has an admirable appreciation of the information and opinions he has gathered and although working them all into a narrative might be difficult, any omission would be detrimental to overall product. Moondust isn’t just a book for the space enthusiast; it’s a book for everyone, not just any book is inducted into Richard & Judy's Book Club.