Robert Macfarlane (30 August 2008). "I walk therefore I am". The Guardian . Retrieved 22 December 2013. Its waters are white, of a clearness so absolute that there is no image for them. Naked birches in April, lighted after heavy rain by the sun, suggest their brilliance. Yet this is too sensational. The whiteness of these waters is simple. They are elemental transparency. Like roundness, or silence, their quality is natural, but is found so seldom in its absolute state that when we do find it we are astonished. Opgetekend in de jaren 40, gepubliceerd in 1977 en nu pas vertaald: de vitale ode van Nan Shepherd aan haar beminde Schotse bergketen Cairngorms bewandelde een talmend pad. De sublieme natuurschrijver Robert MacFarlane (voorwoord) en literair icoon Jeanette Winterson (nawoord) omringen deze editie toepasselijk als reuzen. Shepherd’s trektochten die enkel gericht waren op de glorie van onbegrensde ontdekkingen en haar zintuiglijke zinnen die zonder poëtische opsmuk de natuurelementen deden zingen, vormen het ideale alternatief voor uw afgelaste klimvakantie.

That book, The Living Mountain, is a slender masterpiece of place-writing, and one of the most astonishing works of landscape literature I have ever read. I thought I knew the Cairngorms well before I encountered Shepherd’s book. Nan Shepherd 1893–1981" (PDF). Scottish Literary Tour Trust. 2003 . Retrieved 22 December 2013. {{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ( help)Up on the plateau nothing has moved for a long time. I have walked all day, and seen no one. I have heard no living sound. Once, in a solitary corrie, the rattle of a falling stone betrayed the passage of a line of stags. But up here, no movement, no voice. Man might be a thousand years away.' Shepherd was a major contributor to early Scottish Modernist literature. Her first novel, The Quarry Wood (1928) has often been compared to Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, published four years later, as they both portray restricted, often tragic lives of women in Scotland at that time. [6] Her second novel, The Weatherhouse (1930), concerns interactions between people in a small Scottish community. [7] Her third and final novel, A Pass in the Grampians, appeared in 1933. [4]

In 1945, Nan wrote a part-memoir, part-field study of the Cairngorms, The Living Mountain, although it was not published until 1977. Today, the book is described as “one of the finest books ever written on nature and landscape in Britain”.I plan to trek in the Cairn Gorm now.....it will be my second trip! as I've just finished my first trip with Nan Shepard.

There were magical moments, too, when I was surrounded by the silent, high landscape. I tiptoed into the crystal water of Loch Avon, thinking of Nan’s words, ‘Gazing into its depths, one loses all sense of time.’ I began to understand Nan’s world on a deeper level.” I'm a bit embarrassed when I say that I haven't explored much of Scotland, my home country. The parts I have explored have been incredible. The Isle of Harris (Western Isles) is one of my most recent explorations of Scotland, and what a beautiful part of the world it is. The edgy and cragged land of greens and greys, the long, winding single roads on the twisted hills, the purest, clearest waters, a piece of land far from conventional settlements. I also found a new rhythm to my days and it was much slower than the modern world. I did not have a mobile phone or any modern technology and nor did I have a torch. Just candles and no convenience foods. Elise says, “I also walked to many of the high summits, including Ben Macdui, and discovered glorious paths and views. I watched tiny frogs hop between streams and deer chewing on grass.Shepherd was a keen hill-walker. Her poetry expresses her love for the mountainous Grampian landscape. While a student at university, Shepherd wrote poems for the student magazine, Alma Mater, but not until 1934 was a collection of her poetry, In the Cairngorms, published. [5] This was reissued in April 2014 by Galileo Publishers, Cambridge, with a new introduction by Robert Macfarlane. [8] Non-fiction [ edit ] The twelve chapter headings, like disciples, give you a hint as to the book's Cairngorm worship: "The Plateau," "The Recesses," "The Group," "Water," "Frost and Snow," "Air and Light," "The Plants," "Birds, Animals, Insects," "Man," "Sleep," "The Senses," and "Being." It is in this last chapter that the word "Buddhism" gets mentioned for the first and last time, but its presence is there throughout, especially if you are aware of mountains' role in Buddhist history. Personally, I need go no farther than the hermit Hanshan's Cold Mountain to make the connection. I found that I awoke when the sun came up and went to sleep as it set. I learned to sit and think, to be still – to let myself simply sit and be content – to write my journal and to eat simple meals cooked on a basic stove.” One autumn afternoon, about ten years ago, I sat on a mountainside in Colorado surrounded by aspens. As the wind blew, I could hear the leaves rustle, first from far away, then closer and closer, until I felt the wind in my hair, with leaves rustling loudly overhead. Then slowly, the rustling moved further away, until the sequence started again. Sitting, listening with all my senses, made me feel a part of the mountain. I could smell the autumn leaves, feel a slight chill in the air, hear and feel the wind as a movement.

Here in this book she writes of what she has experienced over the years walking, rambling, sleeping in the mountains. They are old mountains, eroded and no longer high. They reach up to a plateau, split and fissured. She draws them with all her senses—sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Reading, one becomes aware of what one has missed, what one has failed to pay attention to when walking. Have you considered the unique aroma of a sodden birch forest? A place can come to speak to us with more than just the five senses. She asks if perhaps there are other senses we fail to recognize. She goes on to show us that life is a constant search for knowledge and understanding, that often cannot be attained. It is the search itself that is important. The book goes beyond one of nature writing; it takes on a philosophical bent. The Living Mountain: Pioneering Scottish Mountaineer and Poet Nan Shepherd’s Forgotten Masterpiece About Our Relationship with Nature – The MarginalianShepherd’s book records – with luminous precision – details of the Cairngorm world: ‘the coil over coil’ of a golden eagle’s ascent on a thermal, a pool of ‘small frogs jumping like tiddly-winks’, a white hare crossing sunlit snow with its accompanying ‘odd ludicrous leggy shadow-skeleton’. Illustrated Card Cover. Condition: Very Good -. Munro, Ian (illustrator). 1st Identical Reprint. vii + 95pp; A Recent classic. Format exactly as first edition of 1977. No foxing but signs of light reading wear.Tight and clean and no marks or signatures.In very collectible condition of this classic. See scans. The first five days were very wet and windy,” says Elise. “I had not expected it to be so cold in July and it gave me great admiration for Nan in practical terms. She could not rely on the warm, waterproof and lightweight clothing and equipment that we have today. The essays are loosely themed (water, light, plants, sleep), meandering both physically and introspectively all over the Cairngorms and highlighting Shepherd's favorite sights, sensations, events. From the chapter on water: