Search results for ""Author Hamish M. Brown""

Soon after completing the first continuous round of the Munros and publishing th ephenomenally successful Hamish's Mountain Walk, Hamish Brown took to the outdoors and writing full time. With his famous Shetland Collie, Storm, he walked from John O'Groats to Lands End over the summer of 1979. A historical snapshot the resulting book is also an in depth look at these islands. Hamish took his time to meet people and to search out the soul of Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland. The result is the classic Hamish's Groats End Walk.

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Seton Gordon really created himself as naturalist, photographer and writer, the first such in the country, his first book appearing when he was eighteen. In all he wrote 27 books, two specifically about the Cairngorms where he grew up and first explored and returned to many times throughout his long life. He wrote with a revelational wonder and freshness, writing in poetic prose descriptions only possible by someone intimately at home in the hills with their interacting, connected features: birds, plants, trees, geology, weather, Gaelic culture, place names, history, folklore - an ecologist before the word was coined. Hamish Brown selected passages for "Seton Gordon's Scotland" and has now made a fascinating choice from Seton Gordon's extensive writings about the Cairngorms. There are descriptions of hill days throughout the seasons and intimate descriptions of wildlife. Seton Gordon lived to a great age but the Cairngorms were his first, young man's enthusiasm. Hamish Brown, no mean mountaineer and lover of the outdoors, has garnered biographical material and archive pictures for a book which everyone with an interest in the Scottish hills will welcome.

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Seton Gordon was only a boy when he began exploring the Cairngorms, fascinated by its wildlife and seeking to photograph all he saw - he later became a pioneer naturalist, photographer and folklorist. He wrote about the land that is Scotland, her flora and fauna, her people, her spirits, her often violent past. He took the earliest pictures of golden eagles at their eyries and throughout the first half of the 20th century came to know Scotland's remotest corners, amassing a unique photographic record, recording the changing social life of the islands, collecting a mass of folklore and historical stories, lecturing and writing both for regular publications and in 27 books. Like John Muir, he was a wanderer and a guide. We walk with him through pinewoods, to eyries, to the corries of the Cairngorms, we follow him trying to recreate the greenshank's song on his bagpipe chanter; and see him holding a snowball windward of a nesting dotterel to cool its panting.Welcomed in croft or palace, a keen piper, inevitably dressed in kilt and bunnet, Seton Gordon was one of the age's great characters. This selection from his writings gives a fascinating insight of the man and his great versatility. The author, himself a Scottish outdoors enthusiast and well-known author, has been a lifelong admirer of Seton Gordon and his books and has created a book to treasure.

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The West Highland Way is Scotland's first official Long Distance Route and runs near 100 miles from Milngavie to Fort William. It was nicknamed the 'Way Way' by a trio from Fife who set off to walk it in the year of the Millennium. This is not a guidebook but an account of their experiences, the highs and lows which any challenge presents of their marvellous, surprising, amusing and weird memories. They met many hundreds of people along the way but, naturally, those they recall were the more eccentric. Although the trio never managed another bigger trip together they realize how lucky, and wise, they had been to grab the chance when it came. There is remarkably pleasant rural walking at the start to reach the Highlands at Loch Lomond, fine woodland on its banks and later, the contrast of lonely, empty miles across Rannoch Moor, the Devil's Staircase and the great pass of the Lairig Mor to finish. Encounters with other people are an important part of Long Distance Routes. Anyone who has walked the Way Way (or is planning to do so) will enjoy this story, bringing back plenty of similar memories of people and places, adventures and misadventures. The illustrations too give a wonderful idea of the rich variety of country traversed and well capture the atmosphere of this walk through Scotland's fine landscapes.

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Not all of Hamish Brown's many travels about Scotland have taken up mountains or into wild and wind swept places, but he has found himself in some pretty odd locations. Now he has listed them, placing them in their regions, complete with references and directions to produce this beautiful and fascinating book that will take you around Scotland to places you never dreamed of. Beutifully designed by Heather MacPherson of Raspberryhmac, and with maps by David Langwell, The Oldest Post Office in the World is a book you will want not only for the car but for the coffee table and the book shelf. It's one to use and one to treasure.

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