The Wild Isles

£20.00

From Thomas Hardy’s idyllic ‘Wessex’ to Nan Shepherd’s fiercely beautiful Cairngorm mountains, the British landscape has been imagined and reimagined through our literature for as long as we can remember. Literature of the land has become part of our collective identity, seeped into our stories, and shaped the way we think about a place. The chosen pieces in this anthology celebrate our landscape in all its rich diversity, yet also touch on some of the issues facing the natural world today.

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Description

The very best of British and Irish nature writing selected by the natural history writer Patrick Barkham.The landscapes of Britain and Ireland, together with the creatures and plants that inhabit them, have penetrated deep in our collective imagination. From Gilbert White and Dorothy Wordsworth to Laurie Lee and Nan Shepherd, literature inspired by the natural world has become an integral part of our shared identity, and shaped our relationship with the islands we call home.In The Wild Isles, Patrick Barkham has gathered together a wide array of the very best of British and Irish nature writing, characterized by an arresting diversity of moods and voices. His choices are arranged under themes that range from birds, woods and coastlines to childhood, the seasons and urban nature, and juxtapose extracts from much-loved classics with passages by contemporary writers such as Robert Macfarlane, James Rebanks and Helen Macdonald. Here the reader will find joyful celebrations of landscape and the wildlife it nurtures, probing explorations of the environmental problems facing us today, as well as the fresh and vital perspectives of writers from underrepresented backgrounds. ‘If British and Irish nature writing is to grow and endure,’ writes Barkham in his introduction, ‘it must be diverse, complex, multi-faceted and dynamic, and relevant to everyone who lives on this land.’Encompassing the bleak heights of the Cairngorms, the ancient woodlands of Essex, the storm-lashed islands of Ireland’s west coast and the lush fields of Devon, The Wild Isles highlights nature’s capacity to terrify and to delight, to soothe and to heal, to surprise, inspire and bring wonder.

Additional information

Weight 1.004 kg
Dimensions 24 × 17 × 3.5 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

610

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

820.936 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K