'Fascinating and lyrical . . . A beautifully written celebration of a lifelong passion' - Stephen Venables The relationship of people with hills and mountains has been complex, rich and varied - from awe and wonder to fear and loathing, from spiritual longing to peaceful acceptance.
As he explores our high places, Ian Crofton conjures up those who have been there before: Neolithic axe-makers, mass trespassers, shepherds, quarrymen, botanists, poets and pioneering cragsmen and women among them. At the same time, he is ever attuned to the present moment - a flash of bright moss in a bog, the swoop of an eagle above a skyline, a winter sun sinking into a sea of cloud.
Following an arc from the gentle Downs of southern England to the wild peaks of Scotland's far north, Upland combines personal experiences with a keen curiosity about the history and nature of mountain landscapes, and the people who once worked and wandered among them. The result is a meditation on the enduring yet ever-changing hills, on the transience of human experience, and on the shifts and twists of time itself.
Locations included:
Chilterns (following The Ridgeway)
Malverns
Snowdon
Peak District
Pennines
Lake District
Ben Nevis
The Cuillin, Skye
Assynt (Suilven)
Cairngorms
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'This is a constantly surprising and fascinating look at not just the mountains but about the people who work, play, live and travel there, through history and in the present day.... this books a was delight throughout' -- Neil Reid * Scottish Mountaineer Magazine * 'Rich in memories and beautifully written, Ian Crofton's account of a lifetime walking the hills and mountains of Scotland, England and Wales makes for a delightful book' -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman * 'A fascinating and lyrical exploration of what the hills mean to those who have lived and worked among them, and to those who walk and climb among them today . . . A beautifully written celebration of a lifelong passion' -- Stephen Venables 'A wonderfully evocative ode to the high places of Great Britain' -- Ken Lussey * Undiscovered Scotland * 'Ian has a well-honed knack of weaving a literary web linking man and the landscape . . . a tome to engross yourself in whether you are an armchair mountaineer or a tough guy reliving past glories. -- Adrian Trendall * All Things Cuillin * 'this book is written-beautifully-from the stance of a walker and historian' -- Kate Green * Country Life * 'Crofton draws on a lifetime of walking and climbing across Britain and takes us on a unique journey through time and the hills' -- Dawn Geddes * Scots Magazine * 'beautifully crafted and captivating... Crofton proves to be an insightful and genial guide' * Sunday Post * 'Skilfully weaves together personal and family stories, prehistory and history, literature, art, geology, nature and more in a glorious mix of everything the hills have to offer. This rich mix of subjects is wonderful... excellent with much to enjoy and to learn' -- Chris Townsend * Great Outdoors * 'Informative, evocative ... a welcome addition to the nature-writing bookshelf' -- Sarah Lonsdale * Times Literary Supplement * 'Upland draws on a lifetime's hillwalking and climbing, and yet it's so much more than a simple memoir. Mining rich seams of culture and natural history, it ranges far and wide in its exploration of hills as a human experience - mountains not in the abstract, but as places we've lived and worked in, climbed and dreamed about for millennia' -- Dan Bailey * UK Climbing & UK Hillwalking *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Produkt-Hinweis
Fadenheftung
Gewebe-Einband
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 236 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Dicke: 33 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-78027-913-8 (9781780279138)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Ian Crofton's books exploring the interplay of landscape, nature and history include Walking the Border: A Journey between Scotland and England, rated by both The Guardian and Trail magazine as 'excellent'. His Fringed with Mud and Pearls: An English Island Odyssey was described by the BBC's Countryfile as 'really engaging', and by Coast magazine as 'a fascinating study about what it means to exist on the fringes'; it was selected by the Telegraph as one of their top twenty travel books of 2021. Upland: A Journey Through Time and the Hills was published in May 2025.
