Love Letters on the River
Published on 10. July 2025
Book
Hardback
150 pages
978-1-917140-26-3 (ISBN)
Description
From a young age Carly Holmes has been in thrall to the creatures that live around us. Her childhood companion was a blind gander called Beep Beep who thought she was his wife. She nearly postponed her wedding when a pair of wrens nested in a hole by her back door and cut it very fine to fledge their chicks into an assorted audience of cats and magpies.
This collection of essays, beautifully illustrated throughout, are each of them love letters to the Teifi valley and to the river that winds through Carly's days. The wild animals - the badgers who visit nightly for peanuts; the juvenile osprey who learned to fish on the estuary across the lane; the young jackdaw she nurtured until it was healthy enough to ignore her whenever she went into the garden; the cuckoos she discovered in flagrante one afternoon on a lockdown walk - are the very heart of it.
This collection of essays, beautifully illustrated throughout, are each of them love letters to the Teifi valley and to the river that winds through Carly's days. The wild animals - the badgers who visit nightly for peanuts; the juvenile osprey who learned to fish on the estuary across the lane; the young jackdaw she nurtured until it was healthy enough to ignore her whenever she went into the garden; the cuckoos she discovered in flagrante one afternoon on a lockdown walk - are the very heart of it.
Reviews / Votes
"a deeply evocative meditation on the Teifi river, its wildlife, and the surrounding landscape ... As well as being a book to lose yourself in, it adds to the growing body of ecological writing that could help to reshape and rebalance the Earth." - Jenny White, Western Mail"Holmes' love letters, addressed to water, to weather, to the wild world we forget we belong to, are tender but un-whimsical, rooted in the real. And the result is beguiling: an unconventional devotional, full of feeling, wild magic, and awe." Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine
"With so much of what we might call 'new nature writing' now which focuses on the plight of the planet - and rightly so - it's been a pleasure to sit back for once and just enjoy the pure elation of traditionally immersive and beautiful nature writing... Love Letters on the River provides a reminder of why we love nature, how we appreciate it, and when that happens we naturally want to protect it." Lottie Williams, Nation.Cymru
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cardigan
United Kingdom
Illustrations
12 B&W illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 153 mm
Width: 218 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
284 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-917140-26-3 (9781917140263)
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 Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Carly Holmes lives and writes in a small village on the banks of the river Teifi in west Wales. She is the author of the novels The Scrapbook, which was shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award, and Crow Face, Doll Face. Her short story collection,Figurehead, was published by Tartarus Press in limited edition hardback and reprinted in paperback by Parthian Books. She has had numerous stories published in journals and anthologies.
Content
Foreword
BEYOND THE GARDEN WALL:
Mating Cuckoos by Foxhill Farm
Juvenile Osprey on the Teifi Estuary
Skydancing Ravens at Cwm Gwaun
Nightjar at Cross Inn Forest
Bittern at the Teifi Marshes
IN THE GARDEN:
Runty
Tapdancing Tawny Owls
Steak Dinner for Four
Des Res
Pumpkin Eyes
The Bereft Sparrowhawk
Dawn Chorus
BEYOND THE GARDEN WALL:
Winter Barn Owl over the Teifi Marshes
Hobbies at Cors Caron
Swifts at the Watch House
Racing Swans on the Teifi
Murmurating Starlings over the Teifi Marshes
Crossbills at Pantmaenog Forest
Afterword
BEYOND THE GARDEN WALL:
Mating Cuckoos by Foxhill Farm
Juvenile Osprey on the Teifi Estuary
Skydancing Ravens at Cwm Gwaun
Nightjar at Cross Inn Forest
Bittern at the Teifi Marshes
IN THE GARDEN:
Runty
Tapdancing Tawny Owls
Steak Dinner for Four
Des Res
Pumpkin Eyes
The Bereft Sparrowhawk
Dawn Chorus
BEYOND THE GARDEN WALL:
Winter Barn Owl over the Teifi Marshes
Hobbies at Cors Caron
Swifts at the Watch House
Racing Swans on the Teifi
Murmurating Starlings over the Teifi Marshes
Crossbills at Pantmaenog Forest
Afterword