Horatio Clare

As November stubs out the glow of autumn and the days tighten into shorter hours, winter's occupation begins. Preparing for winter has its own rhythms, as old as our exchanges with the land. Of all the seasons, it draws us together. But winter can be tough. It is a time of introspection, of looking inwards. Seasonal sadness; winter blues; depression - such feelings are widespread in the darker months. But by looking outwards, by being in and observing nature, we can appreciate its rhythms.

A Winter Journal

The Light in the Dark

Aubrey's father, Jim, has fallen under an horrendous spell, which Aubrey is determined to break. Everyone says his task is impossible, but Aubrey will never give up and never surrender - even if he must fight the unkillable Spirit of Despair itself: the TERRIBLE YOOT!

Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot

From the slums of Cape Town to the palaces of Algiers, through Pygmy villages where pineapples grow wild, to the Gulf of Guinea where the sea blazes with oil flares, across two continents and fourteen countries - this epic journey is nothing to swallows, they do it twice a year. But for Horatio Clare, writer and birdwatcher, it is the expedition of a lifetime. Along the way he discovers old empires and modern tribes, a witch-doctor's recipe for stewed swallow, explains how to travel without money or a passport, and describes a terrifying incident involving three Spanish soldiers and a tiny orange dog. By trains, motorbikes, canoes, one camel and three ships, Clare follows the swallows from reed beds in South Africa, where millions roost in February, to a barn in Wales, where a pair nest in May.

Following an Epic Journey from South Africa to South Wales

A Single Swallow

Walking to Lübeck with J. S. Bach

Something Of His Art

In Search for a bird on the edge of extinction

Orison for a Curlew

We are celebrating a hundred years since independence this year how would you like to travel on a government icebreaker? A message from the Finnish embassy launches Horatio Clare on a voyage around an extraordinary country and an unearthly place, the frozen Bay of Bothnia, just short of the Arctic circle. Travelling with the crew of Icebreaker Otso, Horatio, whose last adventure saw him embedded on Maersk container vessels for the bestseller Down to the Sea in Ships, discovers stories of Finland, of her mariners and of ice. Finland is an enigmatic place, famous for its educational miracle, healthcare and gender equality as well as Nokia, Angry Birds, saunas, questionable cuisine and deep taciturnity. Aboard Otso Horatio gets to know the men who make up her crew, and explores Finland's history and character. Surrounded by the extraordinary colours and conditions of a frozen sea, he also comes to understand something of the complexity and fragile beauty of ice, a near-miraculous substance which cools the planet, gives the stars their twinkle and which may hold all our futures in its crystals.

a voyage far north

Icebreaker

'Magnificent' Robert Macfarlane Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Our lives depend on shipping but it is a world which is largely hidden from us. In every lonely corner of every sea, through every night, every day, and every imaginable weather, tiny crews of seafarers work the giant ships which keep landed life afloat. These ordinary men live extraordinary lives, subject to dangers and difficulties we can only imagine, from hurricanes and pirates to years of confinement in hazardous, if not hellish, environments. Horatio Clare joins two container ships on their epic voyages across the globe and experiences unforgettable journeys. As the ships cross seas of history and incident, seafarers unfold the stories of their lives, and a beautiful and terrifying portrait of the oceans and their human subjects emerges. 'Tremendous' The Times

Down to the Sea in Ships

A contemporary retelling of the bizarre Mabinogion myth of Lludd and Llevelys, which reveales the origins of London. In this story by Horatio Clare, the Invaders' drones hear all and see all, and England is now a defeated archipelago, but somewhere in the high ground of the far west, insurrection is brewing. Ludo and Levello, the bandit kings of Wales, call themselves freedom fighters. Levello has the heart and help of Uzma, from Pakistan, the only other country in the free world. Ludon has a secret, lethal if revealed. A penetrating and daring raid on the past, present and future of the British Isles and their place in the modern world.

Clip's Truth

The Prince's Pen

Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men

Down To The Sea In Ships

Before Horatio Clare was born, his parents fell in love with a place -- a remote sheep farm in Wales, physically and in every other way far from the lives they were forging as young professionals in London. The farm was high up a mountain, nearly impassable in winter. The neighbors were surly, or perhaps just unused to foreigners. But the setting was breathtaking, and soon it changed Jenny's and Robert's lives. What began as the somewhat conventional dream of a young, ambitious couple from London looking for a weekend home quickly became a different vision. Horatio's mother, romantic and tenacious, found it impossible to leave the fierce and beautiful land. She abandoned her job, her social world, and eventually her marriage to raise her two sons in the company of a herd of sheep, a few dogs, and the badgers, foxes, and mice who had prior claim to her new world. While other boys were going to films and listening to rock music, Horatio was weaning ewes and watching weather and surviving the furor of irascible neighbors. His childhood was marked by wonder and joy, and it is that wonderment that he bestows upon the reader as he recounts the story of the ancient, sometimes brutal, way of life on a hill farm. This wise book is a moving tribute to his mother, both beautiful and brave.

Growing Up on My Mother's Sheep Farm in Wales

Running for the Hills

'We are celebrating a hundred years since independence this year - how would you like to travel on a government icebreaker?' A message from the Finnish embassy launches Horatio Clare on a voyage around an extraordinary country and an unearthly place, the frozen Bay of Bothnia, just short of the Arctic circle. Travelling with the crew of Icebreaker Otso, Horatio gets to know the men who make up her crew, and explores Finland's history and character.

A Voyage Far North

Aubrey is a rumbunctious boy who tries to run before he can walk and has crashed two cars before he's old enough to drive one. But when Aubrey's father, Jim, falls under an horrendous spell, Aubrey is determined to break it. Everyone says his task is impossible but with the help of the animals of Rushing Wood and a touch of magic, Aubrey will never give up and never surrender - even if he must fight the unkillable spirit of despair itself - the Terrible Yoot!

This is an imaginative evocation by Horatio Clare of the walk Bach made 300 years earlier in Northern Germany.

Walking to Lubeck with J S Bach

Something of His Art

Jocelyn Brooke

Stephen Bone

The story of Jocelyn Brooke's search for the most elusive and beloved orchid, the military orchid, Orchis militaris. Blending botany, memoir and satire to recall this lifelong quest, this book was recognized as a comic masterpiece upon its release.

The Military Orchid

Aubrey and the Terrible Ladybirds

A memoir of the author's family life on a remote sheep farm in Wales offers a first-person evaluation of the natural world that traces the author's unconventional mother's decision to leave London society to raise sheep in a challenging new home. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

A Memoir

At thirteen Horatio Clare was a boarder at a boy's public school, a privileged member of an apparently blessed generation. A rebel - one of those who detested the system, who thought it not just fun but right to break its laws - he was expelled for smoking dope. He became one of the thousands who gleefully ignored the warnings and set out, in search of experience and intensity, to slalom on the slippery slope. He was a truant in its original sense: one who beggars himself through choice, not necessity. From university campuses to the rooftops of New York; from Brixton basements to fear and loathing in mid Devon, through psychosis, mania and depression, from sanity to madness and back again, this is a portrait drawn from a generation that turned to drugs. And it is a search for understanding: why do we do these things, and what do they do to us? What were we looking for and what did we find?

Notes from the Slippery Slope

Truant

*A Newstatesman Book of the Year* ‘Nimble, vital, unexpectedly affecting’ Observer Bestselling travel writer Horatio Clare joins an icebreaker for a voyage through the ice-packs of the far north. 'We are celebrating a hundred years since independence this year: how would you like to travel on a government icebreaker?' A message from the Finnish embassy launches Horatio Clare on a voyage around an extraordinary country and an unearthly place, the frozen Bay of Bothnia, just short of the Arctic circle. Travelling with the crew of Icebreaker Otso, Horatio, whose last adventure saw him embedded on Maersk container vessels for the bestseller Down to the Sea in Ships, discovers stories of Finland, of her mariners and of ice. Aboard Otso Horatio gets to know the men who make up her crew, and explores Finland’s history and character. Surrounded by the extraordinary colours and conditions of a frozen sea, he also comes to understand something of the complexity and fragile beauty of ice, a near-miraculous substance which cools the planet, gives the stars their twinkle and which may hold all our futures in its crystals.

A 'Book to look out for in 2021' in the Observer Heavy Light is the story of a breakdown: a journey through mania, psychosis and treatment in a psychiatric hospital, and onwards to release, recovery and healing. After a lifetime of ups and downs, Horatio Clare was committed to hospital under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act. From hypomania in the Alps, to a complete breakdown and a locked ward in Wakefield, this is a gripping account of how the mind loses touch with reality, how we fall apart and how we can be healed - or not - by treatment. A story of the wonder and intensity of the manic experience, as well as its peril and strangeness, it is shot through with the love, kindness, humour and care of those who deal with someone who becomes dangerously ill. Partly a tribute to those who looked after Horatio, from family and friends to strangers and professionals, and partly an investigation into how we understand and treat acute crises of mental health, Heavy Light's beauty, power and compassion illuminate a fundamental part of human experience. It asks urgent questions about mental health that affect each and every one of us. 'An extraordinary book: deeply moving, darkly funny and hugely powerful' Robert Macfarlane 'One of the most brilliant travel writers of our day takes us us now to that most challenging country, severe mental illness; and does so with such wit, warmth, and humanity, that, better acquainted with its terrors, we may better face our own' Reverend Richard Coles 'A record of the bravest, most perilous, most intrepid journey that any human being can ever make. It is stricken, moving, urgent, crucial . . . A luminous, beautiful achievement' Niall Griffiths

Horatio Clare

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