Featuring a fascinating introduction by Val McDermid and new illustrations by Juan Esteban Rodríguez, each copy has been signed by both the introducer and the illustrator. This is a short but powerful and effective story in that it is able to convey so much and set one’s mind thinking on a range of issues (which—and I say this only from reviews I’ve read, since I’m yet to get to the book—the author has explored earlier in his nonfic— The Nutmeg’s Curse), in its few pages. It is something snatched from non-being, that shadow which creeps in on us continuously and can be held off by continuous creative act. Required Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

I read this book before a winter climbing trip to the Cairngorms, and know I will revisit this book as often as I revisit the mountains. Note that you may see cookies placed by Google for advertising, including the opt out cookie, under the Google. Then: "Sparks fly round one's feet as the nails strike rock, and sometimes, if one disturbs black ooze in passing, there leap in it minute pricks of phosphorescent light.

In this the “Happyfolk” live in peace and harmony at the foot of a mountain named Monkey, until the arrival of the “Stangefolk” and their mining of the mountain bring instability and destruction to the people and the wider world. There are so many songs and albums that are connected in my brain to a certain moment, a time of my life and a particular place. This was a drawing together and fusion of her own knowledge and experience of the area, of her interest in spirituality and philosophy and literature and people annealed into a beautiful end product.

She brings a very detailed picture of what can be seen and experienced on the Cairgorms: the sights, the sounds, the light, the water, the smells , the plants and animals, the human tracks, and so on. He is the author of internationally prize-winning and bestselling books about nature, people and place, including Mountains of the Mind (2003), The Wild Places (2007), The Old Ways (2012), Landmarks (2015) and Underland (2019), as well as The Lost Words (2017) and The Lost Spells (2020), children’s books of nature spells created in partnership with the artist Jackie Morris. It is a short book, originally written during the Second World War, containing 12 chapters centred around aspects of the mountain range. It is a work deeply rooted in Nan Shepherd’s knowledge of the natural world, and a poetic and philosophical meditation on our longing for high and holy places. But it's not: it's over 1,000 pages long, because you are going to read it at least 10 times – and find something different in it each time.The Cairgorms is in essence a huge granite plateau (one of the highest in Europe), with a few bulges, cut through by unsightly rivers, some lochs and especially overgrown with heather. Nan' Shepherd’s incredible ode to the Cairngorm mountain range is the perfect book to curl up with after a day spent out rambling, or on a slow Sunday morning with a mug of coffee. An impassioned ode to Nan Shepherd's beloved Cairngorm mountains in the Scottish Highlands, her poetic descriptions and astute observations transport the reader to this beautiful, remote and rugged landscape. Nan Shepherd was also the author of three modernist novels, essays, and a collection of poetry about her beloved Cairngorms. A number of readers of this Folio Society edition of this book have been very pleased with this celebratory and timeless ode to nature.

Skill with the written word is most definitely a necessity if a book wants 3 star or higher out of me, but to get into the 4 and 5 star range a book has to offer more than fine writing and nice structure.

But to a listening ear the sound disintegrates into many different notes - the slow slap of a loch, the high clear trill of a rivulet, the roar of spate.

Full of sweat, tears and side-splitting humour, Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods is a page-turning travelogue and this Folio Society edition is the ultimate companion for fans of the author’s inimitable wit. She explicitly refers to Taoism and Buddhism and the way in which interaction between human physicality (being in the body) and seemingly 'lifeless' matter is nevertheless possible.For Shepherd, ‘we learn by scrutiny of the close-at-hand,’ we do not have to travel far but we do need to open our eyes and really observe rather than just look.