Name: The Living Mountain
Rating: 4.21875 (16 reviews)
ISBN: 9781786897350

Nan Shepherd

A beautiful, collectible gift edition of quintessential Scottish nature writing. Introduced by Robert Macfarlane and with an afterword by Jeanette Winterson

A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland

The Living Mountain

rumbledethumps

For such a short book, it took me a long time to finish. Probably because it deserves to be thought over in some parts, and contemplated in the same way Shepherd contemplated the mountain. 

It's also a bit trite at times, places where she interrupts herself and corrects herself, that just feel a little too staged. But it made me want to visit the mountains of Scotland.

Fraser Simons

Absolutely gorgeous prose. I don’t think I’ve read anything like this I could compare it to Nor have I even heard of “mountain literature”. I doubt I’ve ever witnessed any locations like this whatsoever, let alone have the diction to convey it, if I did. Will look at more of her work.

The whole time I somewhat imagined if there was any sort of Lord of the Rings-type fantasy that intersected with something like this. That would really be something. I haven’t read any fantasy that conveyed an ecosystem and land in this kind of way.

AS SEEN ON BBC’S WINTERWATCH WITH CHRIS PACKHAM AND MICHAELA STRACHAN 'The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain' Guardian In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape. Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.

Jason Porterfield

Short and lyrical, this little book perfectly frames a beloved place in all seasons and circumstances.

In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape. Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.

The Living Mountain A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland

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