Nan Shepherd – författare

'The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain' GuardianIntroduction by Robert Macfarlane. Afterword by Jeanette WintersonIn this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape. Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.

“In a world of self-help, this is true inspiration, deeply admirable without the distance of heroism, bracing without stridency and, ultimately, generous. The mountain, Shepherd tells us, is ‘a corrective of glib assessment.’ So is its book.” —The New York Times Book Review An internationally bestselling classic on the power of the natural world—“part memoir, part field notebook, part lyrical meditation on nature and our relationship with it, evocative of Rachel Carson and Henry Beston and John Muir” (Maria Popova, The New York Times).This masterpiece of nature writing by Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into “the high and holy places” of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world of spectacular cliffs, deep silences, and lakes so clear that they cannot be imagined. As she walks through clouds, endures blizzards, and watches the great spirals of eagles in flight, Shepherd comes to know something about the hidden life of this remarkable landscape—and also herself. The Living Mountain is the result of one woman’s lifetime spent in search of the essential nature of the wild world around her. Composed during World War II, Shepherd’s manuscript lay untouched for almost four decades, nearly lost to time, before it was finally published. In the decades since, audiences and critics of all generations have embraced it as a classic, an enduring testament to the magnificence of mountains and our communion with the environment.

'The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain' GuardianIntroduction by Robert Macfarlane. Afterword by Jeanette WintersonIn this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape. Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.

The Quarry Wood, although published well before Sunset Song, inhabits a similar world; the progress of its heroine could almost be the alternative story of a Chris Guthrie who did go to university. Compassionate and humorous, the grace and style of Shepherd's prose is heightened by a superb ear for the vigorous language of the north-east.The Weatherhouse, Shepherd's masterpiece, is an even more substantial achievement which belongs to the great line of Scottish fiction dealing with the complex interactions of small communities, and especially the community of women - a touching and hilarious network of mothers, daughters, spinsters and widows. It is also a striking meditation on the nature of truth, the power of human longing and the mystery of being.The third and final novel, A Pass in the Grampians, describes Jenny Kilgour's coming of age as she has to choose between the kindly harshness of her grandfather's life on a remote hill farm, and the vulgar and glorious energy of Bella Cassie, a local girl who left the community to pursue success as a singer, and has now returned to scandalise them all.The Living Mountain is a lyrical testament in praise of the Cairngorms. It is a work deeply rooted in Shepherd's knowledge of the natural world, and a poetic and philosophical meditation on our longing for high and holy places.This omnibus edition of Shepherd's prose works reveals how her sensitivity and powers of observation raise her work far above the status of regional literature and into the front rank of Scottish writing.

The women of the tiny town of Fetter-Rothnie have grown used to a life without men, and none more so than the tangle of mothers and daughters, spinsters and widows living at the Weatherhouse. Returned from war with shellshock, Garry Forbes is drawn into their circle as he struggles to build a new understanding of the world from the ruins of his grief.In The Weatherhouse Nan Shepherd paints an exquisite portrait of a community coming to terms with the brutal losses of war, and the small tragedies, yearnings and delusions that make up a life.

When Martha accepts a place at university, her decision is met with a mixture of hostility and pride by her uncomprehending family. This is the story of a young woman's journey to maturity and independence, struggling to cope with the intellectual and emotional challenges that surround her, at a time when such space was rarely given freely to women.In The Quarry Wood, Nan Shepherd's subtle prose is matched with intense and memorable descriptions of the natural world, and a dry sense of humour. Ninety years after the first publication, it remains as fresh and original today.

First published in 1934, In The Cairngorms is Nan Shepherd's only book of poems. It took her twenty- five years to write these forty-six poems. Each is possessed of a fierce intensity; together, they offer glimpses into what she once called the burning heart of life'. Shepherd's lifelong acquaintance with the Scottish mountains was a spiritual as well as a geographical exploration: in the Cairngorms she discovered both elemental beauty and profound metaphysical mystery. Her huge gifts as a poet were to convey these discoveries in language that remains strange and thrilling.'

In the 1930s, the writer and poet, Nan Shepherd was one of North-East Scotland's best known literati, and a highly respected member of the Scottish modernist movement. Her image now graces the new Scottish [5 note; her book The Living Mountain has become a classic and sells in its thousands. Wild Geese is a fantastic new collection of her work, never-before-published, including essays, poems and short stories.

Auf ihren unzähligen Reisen in die schottischen Cairngorm Mountains begegnete Nan Shepherd einer atemberaubend schönen wie schockierend harten Natur. In ihrem wichtigsten Buch – ein Kondensat der aufwühlendsten Erfahrungen – gelingt es ihr, diese Naturerlebnisse auf unvergleichliche Weise zu schildern: Felsen, Wiesen, Weiden und Tiere sowie dem menschlichen Auge zuweilen verborgene Geheimnisse der Natur einer unvergleichlichen Landschaft. Immer versucht sie dabei, dem innersten Wesen der sie umgebenden Welt auf die Spur zu kommen und sich mit ihr in Beziehung zu setzen. Verfasst während des Zweiten Weltkrieges wurde Der lebende Berg erst kurz vor ihrem Tod veröffentlicht.

First published in 1934, and reissued in 2013, In The Cairngorms is Nan Shepherd's only book of poems. Although she wrote three acclaimed novels, and a remarkable prose meditation on the Cairngorms The Living Mountain. Shepherd considered her poetry to have been her finest work. This new edition adds 12 poems which were discovered during research for the Shepherd biography 'Into the Mountain', all of which are very much of the same quality as the works in the original volume. The new hardback edition is printed in 2 colours on a premium paper and will be a must for every Nan Shepherd fan.