A classic eulogy to the beauty and magnificence of the mountains The Living Mountain is a lyrical testament in praise of the Cairngorms. It is a work deeply rooted in Nan Shepherd’s knowledge of the natural world, and a poetic and philosophical meditation on our longing for high and holy places. Drawing on different perspectives of the mountain environment, Shepherd makes the familiar strange and the strange awe-inspiring. Her sensitivity and powers of observation put her into the front rank of nature writing.
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The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain.
-- Guardian
-- Guardian
About the Author
Anna (Nan) Shepherd was born in 1893 and died in 1981. Closely attached to Aberdeen and her native Deeside, she graduated from her home University in 1915, and went to work for the next forty-one years as a lecturer in English at what is now Aberdeen College of Education. An enthusiastic gardener and hill walker, she made many visits to the Cairngorms with students and friends and was a keen member of the Deeside Field Club. The Living Mountain testifies to her love of the hills and her knowledge of them in all their moods. Her many further travels included visits to Norway, France, Italy, Greece and South Africa, but she always returned to the house where she was raised and lived almost all her adult life, in the village of West Cults, three miles from Aberdeen on North Deeside.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
54 of 56 people found the following review helpful
By SCM
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Living Mountain is Nan Shepherd's love song to The Cairngorms. Many (probably most) books about mountains are written to show man (and it normally is men) on or against mountains. This book is different. This book places the author with the mountains.
This is an intimate and detailed study of the Cairngorms that focuses far more on rivers and light, the freezing of streams and the disorientation of mist, than it does does peaks or particular journeys. In this way the book seems directionless, but only if direction is defined in a geographical fashion. If the direction of travel relates to a journey of understanding then the book is not directionless at all, and charts the authors growing knowledge of the mountains.
If you are looking for a book full of daring deeds and heroic ascents, then this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a thoughtful account of how people build an emotional connection to a place and how individual aspects of that place can combine to form wonder, then you should read this book.
Highly recommended.
This is an intimate and detailed study of the Cairngorms that focuses far more on rivers and light, the freezing of streams and the disorientation of mist, than it does does peaks or particular journeys. In this way the book seems directionless, but only if direction is defined in a geographical fashion. If the direction of travel relates to a journey of understanding then the book is not directionless at all, and charts the authors growing knowledge of the mountains.
If you are looking for a book full of daring deeds and heroic ascents, then this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a thoughtful account of how people build an emotional connection to a place and how individual aspects of that place can combine to form wonder, then you should read this book.
Highly recommended.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By Emily
Format:Paperback
if you've reached the point of near boredom with the thousands of macho books of near death, tragedy and successful climbs which are typical of biographies and novels of the mountains, then you will find this a breath a fresh air.
Nan's use of language is poetic and beautifully visual and completely different from anything you will usually read about living and enjoying the mountains.
This is a must read for anyone who loves the Cairngorms, Scotland, or mountains in general. But if you simply have a love of beautiful language then you will find this a perfect introduction to the wilderness.
Nan's use of language is poetic and beautifully visual and completely different from anything you will usually read about living and enjoying the mountains.
This is a must read for anyone who loves the Cairngorms, Scotland, or mountains in general. But if you simply have a love of beautiful language then you will find this a perfect introduction to the wilderness.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By Tatcat
Format:Paperback
For those who love the mountains for the emotional, spiritual and inspirational nourishment that they provide, then this book expresses it all in a very personal relationship with the mountains written in both poetic and philosophical prose. Beautifully written avoiding all the usual action, disaster and/or heroics associated with mountain stories.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Soul Food
I wept with pleasure on the final page. It is writing devoid of sentmentality, exquisitely poetic throughout, and describes experiencing the mountain range over many years, both... Read more
Published 2 months ago by P DeLacy
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic worthy of the name...
If mountain literature were ever to have such a thing as a sacred text, then 'The Living Mountain' would surely be a candidate.
Published 2 months ago by David Byers
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetic and philosophical meditation on the Cairngorms
The Living Mountain is a poetic and philosophical account of the author's decades of wandering in the Cairngorms. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Blizzard lizard
5.0 out of 5 stars
sublime
the finest work about hills and nature that i have read. this slim volume is essential reading for all who venture into, and wish to be part of, nature and landscape. Read more
Published 3 months ago by fin monteith
3.0 out of 5 stars
A different kind of book
I chose this to read for our book club having heard good reviews on radio 4. The language the author uses to describe different aspects of the mountains is very good but it is... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Kathleen Lilian Bellingham
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Living Mountain
Prose poetry at its best. Nan Shepherd makes a spiritual link with the landscape that opens your eyes to any land around you.
Published 4 months ago by Headintheclouds
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and evocative
Nan Shepherd's little book captures the essence of mountains and their lure for those of us who love them in a way I have never experienced in any other book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by A. Burt
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cairngorms
Would recommend this book for all very enthusiastic people interested in the Cairngorms, steeped in her own vision of mountains, I personally struggled.
Published 5 months ago by anne finlay
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent read
As a non-skier there wasn't much that made me want to consider the Cairngorms as a holiday destination in winter, but this book makes me want to go, now.
Published 5 months ago by Entangled
5.0 out of 5 stars
For those who understand mountains
This book is the closest I have ever read to an account of what it truly feels like to appreciate a mountain and understand all the sensory pleasures which come from mountain... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Rob
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