Search results for ""Author Nancy Campbell""

Can a tiny vehicle provide the space to rebuild a life? Thunderstone: a sculpted & fearless memoir from the award-winning author of Fifty Words for Snow

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‘A wonderful book: Nancy Campbell is a fine storyteller with a rare physical intelligence. The extraordinary brilliance of her eye confers the reader a total immersion in the rimy realms she explores. Glaciers, Arctic floe, verglas, frost and snow — I can think of no better or warmer guide to the icy ends of the Earth’ Dan Richards, author of Climbing DaysA vivid and perceptive book combining memoir, scientific and cultural history with a bewitching account of landscape and place, which will appeal to readers of Robert Macfarlane, Roger Deakin and Olivia Laing. Long captivated by the solid yet impermanent nature of ice, by its stark, rugged beauty, acclaimed poet and writer Nancy Campbell sets out from the world’s northernmost museum – at Upernavik in Greenland – to explore it in all its facets. From the Bodleian Library archives to the traces left by the great polar expeditions, from remote Arctic settlements to the ice houses of Calcutta, she examines the impact of ice on our lives at a time when it is itself under threat from climate change.The Library of Ice is a fascinating and beautifully rendered evocation of the interplay of people and their environment on a fragile planet, and of a writer’s quest to define the value of her work in a disappearing landscape.‘The writer and poet offers reflections on ice and snow that draw on art, science and history… a dreamlike book.’ – The Guardian ‘It is a sparkling and wonderful meditation on a substance we must cherish’ – The Independent ‘It is a pleasant brew infused with elements not only of travel and history, but also of memoir and personal reflection’- Literary Review‘Ms Campbell, a penniless but intrepid traveller, braves miserable bus journeys, freezing rain, dark and intense cold, but still manages to write rapturously of the beauties of the Arctic’- The Economist

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The poems in Nancy Campbell's first collection transport the reader to the frozen shores of Greenland. The Arctic has long been a place of encounters, and Disko Bay is a meeting point for whalers and missionaries, scientists and shamans. We hear the stories of those living on the ice edge in former times: hunters, explorers and settlers, and the legendary leader Qujaavaarssuk. These poems relate the struggle for existence in the harsh polar environment, and address tensions between modern life and traditional ways of subsistence. As the environment begins to change, hunters grow hungry and their languages are lost. In the final sequence, Jutland, we reach the northern fringes of Europe, where shifting waterlines bear witness to the disappearing arctic ice.

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Waterstones Non fiction Book of the Month November 2021 ‘A delightful compendium that brings together language, culture and adventure through frozen landscapes as it shares the meanings behind 50 words for snow, gathered from around the globe.’ The Herald Snow. Every language has its own words for the magical, mesmerising flakes that fall from the sky. In this exquisite exploration, writer and Arctic traveller Nancy Campbell digs deep into the meanings of fifty words for snow. In Japanese we encounter yuki-onna – a ‘snow woman’ who drifts through the frosted land. In Icelandic it is hundslappadrífa – ‘snowflakes as big as a dog’s paw’ – that softly blanket the streets. And in Māori we meet Huka-rere – ‘one of the children of rain and wind’. From mountain tops and frozen seas to city parks and desert hills, each of these linguistic snow crystals offers a whole world of myth and story – the perfect winter gift. ___ ‘Absolutely exquisite. This little book is a work of art. It is impossible to imagine the reader who will not love it.’ Horatio Clare, author of The Light in the Dark ‘This stunning book made me want to pack all my woolies, candles, ample firewood and enough books for a year – and head to as northerly a location as I could find.’ Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Caught By the River ‘Sparkles and dazzles with new meanings and old magic. You’ll never see snow in the same way again.’ Matt Gaw, author of Under the Stars

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A The Scotsman Book of the Year 2021. In re-telling the Inuit stories included here, Richard Price opens out remarkable northern vistas and unfamiliar narratives, strange gods and unforgettable characters. Carol Rumens described Price as a poet who is 'brilliant quietly: inventive, sometimes dazzling, but never merely showy': precisely the talents for rendering, rather than appropriating these great story-cycles of Inuit culture. Here we learn of 'Sedna the Sea Goddess' and 'Kiviuq the Hunter', the central protagonists of the book's remarkable stories. They are rich in extraordinary incident. In Sedna's world women can marry dogs and have half-puppy, half-human children; birds beat their wings so hard they call down a storm on a fugitive kayak; walruses originate from... well that would be telling. Each story-cycle abounds in natural wonder, celebrating our creaturely relations with our fellow inhabitants of land and sea. 'The Old Woman Who Changed Herself into a Man', a short narrative, bridges the major sequences, telling the story of an older woman and a younger one who become lovers in the isolation of their remote home.

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Born in 1943 in London, Bill Jacklin RA studied and worked in graphic design before a move to study painting at the Royal College of Art. Initially abstract, his work moved towards figuration in the mid-1970s, at which point he also became preoccupied with the effects of light and movement, twin strands that have characterised his work ever since. Since his move to New York in 1985, he has concentrated on painting portraits of the city in all its guises, from large-scale compositions of crowds in flux to Seurat-like etchings depicting more intimate urban moments.Jacklin enjoys making monotypes, whose fusion of printmaking and painting techniques is particularly well suited to his subject-matter. Painted on a polished, non-absorbent surface, these images are unique, and no reusable element, such as an etching plate, woodblock or stencil, is employed in their creation. This handsome new book reproduces a wide range of Jacklin's exuberant monotypes and contains an informative ac

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*WINNER OF THE ACKERLEY PRIZE 2023* ‘The most thoughtful and soothing book I’ve read this year.’ Daily Mail ‘There is just one object I want to carry inside the van... It was believed lightning would not strike a house that held a thunderstone. I place this fossil on the windowsill, its surface gleaming like cat’s eyes ahead of me on a dark road.’ In the wake of a traumatic lockdown, Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it into a strip of neglected woodland between a canal and railway. There is no plumbed water, no electricity point and the walls are as thin as a Kinder egg. But it is the first home she has ever owned. As summer begins, Nancy embraces the challenge of how to live well in a place in which possessions and emotions often threaten to tumble, clearing industrial junk from the soil, forging unconventional friendships off-grid and helping the wild beauty surrounding her to flourish. But when illness and uncertainty loom once more, she has to find a way to hold on to beauty and wonder, to anchor herself in this van, this safe space, this shelter from the storm. An intimate journal across the space of a defining summer, Nancy Campbell’s memoir is celebration of the people and places that hold us when the storms gather; a soul-shaking journey that reminds us what it is to be alive. ___ ‘A beautiful and often very funny account of hope and healing in the face of illness and uncertainty.’ TLS ‘How to find beauty and wonder even in the most trying of circumstances’ The Scotsman ‘An uplifting, heart-filled read full of hope and love.’ Lulah Ellender, author of Grounding

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‘From the author of our former Non-Fiction Book of the Month Fifty Words for Snow comes a luminous collection of fascinating seasonal tales that explore everything from Tove Jansson's childhood to polar bird myths.’ Waterstones A treasure trove of nature tales from storytellers across the globe, bringing a little magic and wonder to every winter night. As the evenings draw in – a time of reckoning, rest and restoration – immerse yourself in this new seasonal anthology. Nature Tales for Winter Nights puts winter – rural, wild and urban – under the microscope and reveals its wonder. From the late days of autumn, through deepest cold, and towards the bright hope of spring, here is a collection of familiar names and dazzling new discoveries. Join the naturalist Linnæus travelling on horseback in Lapland, witness frost fairs on the Thames and witch-hazel harvesting in Connecticut, experience Alpine adventure, polar bird myths and courtship in the snow in classical Japan and ancient Rome. Observations from Beth Chatto’s garden and Tove Jansson’s childhood join company with artists’ private letters, lines from Anne Frank’s diary and fireside stories told by indigenous voices. A hibernation companion, this book will transport you across time and country this winter. ___ Praise for Fifty Words for Snow, a Waterstones Book of the Month: ‘Absolutely exquisite. This little book is a work of art.’ Horatio Clare, author of The Light in the Dark ‘This stunning book made me want to pack all my woolies, candles, ample firewood and enough books for a year – and head to as northerly a location as I could find.’ Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Caught by the River ‘A delightful compendium’ The Herald ‘Winter has its own special magic, and this collection from around the world makes you want to pull on your boots and get out there.’ Saga

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