9780713999679
Category Name : Travel & Holidays
Author Name : Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places: 500 Ways to Discover the Wild
Publisher Name : Christopher Somerville's book is clearly a work of love for him and its personalised and poetic accounts of some of Britain and Ireland's wild places is immediately accessible. Wisely he talks of wild places rather than 'wilderness' which as well as difficult to define largely does not, it can be argued, truly exist in the UK. The entries are long enough to entice you to further investigation, he is strong on the history of places, and gives you enough information to seek them out yourself. There are no detailed guided walks or maps for the individual entries which is no bad thing and impossible in any case for a work of this depth. The photographs are largely by the author and they add to its unique feel as they look like the places that you and I visit rather than the ones a professional photographer evokes! Any book of this nature is a subjective one and its important not to forget the wild places that are less well known on our own doorstep, in a hedgerow, a river valley, or a local wood which are intimate and in no need of 'discovering' by everyone. My one criticism of the book as it applies to Scotland with which I am more familiar is a strange absence of reference to native forests. Its easy to fall into the habit of equating wild and 'bleak' in this part of the world and I would argue that the important remnants of Caledonian forest and Atlantic oakwoods are far less modified than the open mountain land denuded of forest by man and overgrazing which is seen as 'untouched' in the popular imagination. As such there is no reference bizarrely to Abernethy and Rothiemurchus forests in his entry on the Cairngorm or any reference to places such as say Glen Affric or Ariundle which give a truer glimpse of a wild Scotland. With these reservations aside it is a book to be welcomed and an excellent addition our enjoyment of these beautiful islands.
Minimum Price : £ 16.50
Category Name : Travel & Holidays
Author Name : Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places: 500 Ways to Discover the Wild
Publisher Name : Christopher Somerville's book is clearly a work of love for him and its personalised and poetic accounts of some of Britain and Ireland's wild places is immediately accessible. Wisely he talks of wild places rather than 'wilderness' which as well as difficult to define largely does not, it can be argued, truly exist in the UK. The entries are long enough to entice you to further investigation, he is strong on the history of places, and gives you enough information to seek them out yourself. There are no detailed guided walks or maps for the individual entries which is no bad thing and impossible in any case for a work of this depth. The photographs are largely by the author and they add to its unique feel as they look like the places that you and I visit rather than the ones a professional photographer evokes! Any book of this nature is a subjective one and its important not to forget the wild places that are less well known on our own doorstep, in a hedgerow, a river valley, or a local wood which are intimate and in no need of 'discovering' by everyone. My one criticism of the book as it applies to Scotland with which I am more familiar is a strange absence of reference to native forests. Its easy to fall into the habit of equating wild and 'bleak' in this part of the world and I would argue that the important remnants of Caledonian forest and Atlantic oakwoods are far less modified than the open mountain land denuded of forest by man and overgrazing which is seen as 'untouched' in the popular imagination. As such there is no reference bizarrely to Abernethy and Rothiemurchus forests in his entry on the Cairngorm or any reference to places such as say Glen Affric or Ariundle which give a truer glimpse of a wild Scotland. With these reservations aside it is a book to be welcomed and an excellent addition our enjoyment of these beautiful islands.
Minimum Price : £ 16.50
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