Neil Ansell – författare

Deep Country is Neil Ansell's account of five years spent alone in a hillside cottage in Wales.'I lived alone in this cottage for five years, summer and winter, with no transport, no phone. This is the story of those five years, where I lived and how I lived. It is the story of what it means to live in a place so remote that you may not see another soul for weeks on end. And it is the story of the hidden places that I came to call my own, and the wild creatures that became my society.'Neil Ansell immerses himself in the rugged British landscape, exploring nature's unspoilt wilderness and man's relationship with it. Deep Country is a celebration of rural life and the perfect read for fans of Robert Macfarlane's Landmarks, Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk orJames Rebanks' A Shepherd's Life.'A beautiful, translucent portrayal of mid-Wales' Jay Griffiths'Touching. Through Ansell's charming and thoroughly detailed stories of run-ins with red kites, curlews, sparrowhawks, jays and ravens, we see him lose himself . . . in the rhythms and rituals of life in the British wilderness' Financial Times'Remarkable, fascinating' Time Out'A gem of a book, an extraordinary tale. Ansell's rich prose will transport you to a real life Narnian world that CS Lewis would have envied. Find your deepest, most-comfortable armchair and get away from it all' CountryfileNeil Ansell spent five years living on a remote hillside in Wales, and wrote his first book, Deep Country, about the experience. Since that time, he has become an award-winning television journalist with the BBC. He has travelled in over fifty countries and has written for the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Big Issue.

Neil Ansell's THE LAST WILDERNESS is a mesmerising book on nature and solitude by a writer who has spent his lifetime taking solitary ventures into the wild. For any readers of the author's previous book, DEEP COUNTRY, Robert Macfarlane's THE OLD WAYS or William Atkins THE MOOR.Shortlisted for the 2018 Wainwright Golden Beer Book PrizeShortlisted for the 2018 Highland Book Prize 'Ansell has the rare skill of combining vividly the intimacy of detail and the astonishing grandeur of this North West coastline of Scotland. Through his keen eyes we look again at the familiar with a sense of wondrous revelation' Madeleine Bunting 'Beautiful...a testimony to reticent courage' Daily MailThe experience of being in nature alone is here set within the context of a series of walks that Neil Ansell takes into the most remote parts of Britain, the rough bounds in the Scottish Highlands. He illustrates the impact of being alone as part of nature, rather than outside it.As a counterpoint, Neil Ansell also writes of the changes in the landscape, and how his hearing loss affects his relationship with nature as the calls of the birds he knows so well become silent to him.

From a 2018 Wainwright Prize shortlisted author, THE CIRCLING SKY is part childhood memoir, blended with exquisite nature observation, and the story of one man's journey over a year to one of the UK's key natural habitats, the New Forest of HampshireIn the form of several journeys, beginning in January 2019, Neil Ansell returns for solitary walks to the New Forest in Hampshire, close to where he was born. With beautiful sightings and observations of birds, trees, butterflies, insects and landscape, this is also a reflective memoir on childhood, on the history of one of the most ancient and important natural habitats in the United Kingdom, and on the Gypsies who lived there for centuries - and were subsequently expelled to neighbouring cities. It is also part polemic on our collective and individual responsibility for the land and world in which we live, and how we care for it.'Neil Ansell is a wonderful guide... this is a delight of nature writing' Choice Magazine

A journey like no other.Acclaimed nature writer Neil Ansell has suffered from progressive hearing loss his whole life. As his world is becoming ever more silent, he suddenly hears something quite unexpected – the haunting call of the great northern diver. It is this extraordinary experience which makes him realise that there might still be remarkable sounds in nature within his reach – if he can only find himself in the right place at the right time.This moving book charts Neil’s mission to hear rare and elusive creatures that he had not previously encountered. This journey takes him from the mountaintops and islands of the Scottish Highlands to the marshes of England and the hills of Wales. Many of these species are in grave danger of extinction, so the future Neil faces, devoid of their distinctive calls, is one we all must fight to prevent. LOCATIONS AND ANIMALS: Great northern diver (Nether Lochaber, Scottish Highlands), Ptarmigan (Ardgour, Scottish Highlands), Little Grebe (Ardgour, Scottish Highlands), Bittern (Morecambe Bay, Lancashire), Natterjack toad (The Wirral), Red-throated diver (Ardgour, Scottish Highlands), Corncrake (Coll), Snipe (Coll), Black grouse (North Wales), Greenshank (Ardgour, Scottish Highlands), Puffin (Canna and Sanday), Storm petrel (Mousa, Shetland), Whimbrel (Shetland), Red kite (Perthshire), Otter (Sunart, Scottish Highlands), Manx shearwater (Rum)Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2025

A journey like no other.Acclaimed nature writer Neil Ansell has suffered from progressive hearing loss his whole life. As his world is becoming ever more silent, he suddenly hears something quite unexpected – the haunting call of the great northern diver. It is this extraordinary experience which makes him realise that there might still be remarkable sounds in nature within his reach – if he can only find himself in the right place at the right time.This moving book charts Neil’s mission to hear rare and elusive creatures that he had not previously encountered. This journey takes him from the mountaintops and islands of the Scottish Highlands to the marshes of England and the hills of Wales. Many of these species are in grave danger of extinction, so the future Neil faces, devoid of their distinctive calls, is one we all must fight to prevent. LOCATIONS AND ANIMALS: Great northern diver (Nether Lochaber, Scottish Highlands), Ptarmigan (Ardgour, Scottish Highlands), Little Grebe (Ardgour, Scottish Highlands), Bittern (Morecambe Bay, Lancashire), Natterjack toad (The Wirral), Red-throated diver (Ardgour, Scottish Highlands), Corncrake (Coll), Snipe (Coll), Black grouse (North Wales), Greenshank (Ardgour, Scottish Highlands), Puffin (Canna and Sanday), Storm petrel (Mousa, Shetland), Whimbrel (Shetland), Red kite (Perthshire), Otter (Sunart, Scottish Highlands), Manx shearwater (Rum)Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2025