Frozen River

James Crowden is an author and poet living in Somerset, England.He is the author of Ciderland (2008) which won the André Simon Food and Drink Award in 2008 and visits India whenever he can.

Praise for The Frozen River‘The singular virtue of Crowden’s prose is to create a sense of enormous immediacy … he acts as a transparent lens that gathers all that fierce Zanskari winter light and illuminates the primary colors of both the place and its people. In so doing, he creates a tour de force of luminous writing.’ Mark Cocker, Spectator‘The adventure brings out the best in Crowden’s writing, which in full flow has a compelling lyrical energy.’Oliver Balch, TLS‘A revelation…the most gripping and fascinating reads I have enjoyed for a very long time.’Martin Hesp, Western Morning News‘In prose hard as the frost and gritty as the rocks, James Crowden weathers a Himalayan winter in snow-bound Zanskar and recalls the boundless hospitality and ingenuity of his wind-furrowed hosts. Crowden and Zanskar are a match made on high.’John Keay, author of India: A History ‘Terrific. Crowden is a meditative swashbuckler: imagine John Buchan, cross-legged in a mountain monastery, smelling of sandalwood incense, or Wordsworth on speed, with a belt jangling with karabiners.’Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast‘A luminous book, exquisite in its depiction, profound in its rhymes of ice and mind. As testament to its transporting power, when I’d finished it I felt I had spent a winter in Zanskar.’Jay Griffiths, author of Wild‘A fascinating, immersive, hair-raising read.’Tim Pears author of In The Place of Fallen Leaves ‘A wonderful book, otherworldly, full of the ecstasies and revelations of true isolation and hardship.’ Philip Marsden, author of Rising Ground‘through his eyes we glimpse a vanishing world; the nature, people and traditions little changed for hundreds of years … a fleeting glimpse of an older way of life’ Geographical Magazine