It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Dolphin Who Saved Me: How an Extraordinary Friendship Helped Me Overcome Trauma and Find Hope by Melody Horrill.
Melody Horrill is an award-winning journalist, presenter, and documentary producer, with more than twenty years’ experience in broadcast media. She is well-known for her passionate writing and filming about the endangered wild dolphins in Australia. Her documentary Dance with a Dolphin was broadcast across the world on CNN, with Melody presenting it from the U.S.
About the book
When Melody Horrill arrived at university she was a troubled and lost young woman, hiding behind a carefully crafted exterior. She had experienced a childhood of emotional and physical trauma, mainly at the hands of her violent father, that was as damaging as it was brutal.
One day Melody volunteered to help her lecturer monitor pods of nearby river dolphins. There for the first time she encountered Jock, a solitary dolphin with a maimed fin, who lived apart from the highly social pods. Melody grew to form a bond with Jock that gave her the key to freeing herself from the demons of her own past, their extraordinary friendship being the start of her long-term mission to save river dolphins.
Beautifully written and filled with insight and compassion, Melody’s memoir details her life-changing friendship with the river dolphins, and how Jock helped her to heal.
In a sense the two beings mirror each other in certain ways, which is probably something Melody instinctively and subconsciously recognises, but perhaps only realises the importance of as time passes. The damaged mammals echo pain in body and soul, and their closeness is an emotional and visual healing process. I think it's equally important to take note that this is also a message about the way we treat not only the most vulnerable, but also living beings in general. The path they have both taken seems to be one of isolation, one as the outcast the other perhaps more as a coping mechanism.
It's a beautiful and poignant journey and story. Whilst the reader can only assume what the response one side is I think the experience and response is evidence that the connection between Jock and Melody is a core memory, a connection one of them will ever forget. It has clearly left a positive mark in the life of the author, and one can only hope it has helped to heal previous trauma.
The other important element of this book is the discussion about how attitudes have changed when it comes to interacting with marine life and the way we should be supporting the conservation of species, the reintroduction or naturalisation of captive marine life. I think the world has taken a step in the right direction when it comes to the general public, but we have a long way to go. If this story leaves any kind of impact it should be the special relationship between human and dolphin, and the remarkable journey the two of them experienced together.
Buy The Dolphin Who Saved Me at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Greystone Books, pub date: 28 September 2023 Paperback • £14.99 U.K. Buy at Amazon com.
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