Description
Book SynopsisTHE TIMES AUDIOBOOK OF THE YEAR
'The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain' Guardian
In this masterpiece of nature writing, beautifully narrated by Oscar-winning actor Tilda Swinton, 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.
Trade ReviewThe finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain * * Guardian * *
Most works of mountain literature are written by men, and most of them focus on the goal of the summit. Nan Shepherd's aimless, sensual exploration of the Cairngorms is bracingly different -- ROBERT MACFARLANE
[A] masterpiece of Scottish writing -- Anita Sethi * * Observer * *
A masterpiece . . . Amongst the greatest works of nature writing to come out of Britain -- Chitra Ramaswamy * * Scotsman * *
Reading [
The Living Mountain] seems to me to explain why reading is so important. And odd. And necessary. And not like anything else. There is no substitute for reading -- JEANETTE WINTERSON
Tilda Swinton...narrates with a warm, slightly husky intensity that matches Shepherd's prose. The experience of reading it in a single sitting was, she said, "like riding the best possible hunter over the brightest possible hill: exhilarating barely covers it". -- Christina Hardyment * * The Times * *
