Wild About Britain: A lifetime of award-winning nature writing

by Brian Jackman

Overview

A new collection of award-winning journalist and author Brian Jackman's nature and travel writings from the past 40 years. This is a nationwide celebration of Britain's unspoiled coast and countryside, concentrating in particular on Britain's wildlife and the wild places in which its most spectacular species are found, but also touching on fishing, sailing and the way Britain's history has shaped the landscape. 'Wild about Britain is not a guidebook' says Brian Jackman. 'It's an extended love letter to the British countryside; a personal view covering more than four decades of travels in the wilder parts of Britain.'

Complementing Brian Jackman's writing are a small number of illustrations from Jonathan Truss, one of the UK's leading wildlife artists who has twice won the Frozen Planet category of the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year competition.

What makes the British countryside so special is its chameleon quality - the way its character changes with every few miles. Sometimes it can change dramatically; elsewhere the landscape undergoes more subtle shifts; but every region has its own distinctive qualities and is possessed of its own special magic. Brian Jackman writes eloquently and evocatively, conjuring up the sights and sounds of everything from barnacle geese on the salt marsh of an Islay loch to star gazing on Exmoor, of a seascape of headlands, cliffs and wave-smashed rocks at Lands End, of eagles on the Ardnamurchan peninsula and the autumn rut in the New Forest. Ancient oaks, red kites, huge mirror carp, the oldest path in Britain and Border reivers are all included.

As a pioneer of eco-tourism, Brian Jackman has been writing on these subjects for 40 years, first as a travel writer for The Sunday Times and currently for The Daily Telegraph. Although more widely known for his knowledge of African wildlife and safaris - he is the author of The Marsh Lions and Savannah Diaries - it is his love of the British countryside that has brought him most of his awards. From Cornwall to Hermaness and from East Anglia to the Welsh Marches, Wild About Britain showcases Jackman's writing at its best.

Winner of the British Guild of Travel Writers Best Narrative Travel Book 2018.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784775322
Publisher:	Bradt Travel Guides Ltd
Publication date:	09/28/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

From Cornwall to Hermaness and from East Anglia to the Welsh Marches, Wild About Britain showcases Jackman's writing at its best, exploring the countryside whose sights and sounds have shaped his life since childhood.

Brian Jackman is an award-winning journalist and author with a passion for travel and wildlife. For more than four decades he has covered the world, first for The Sunday Times and now for The Daily Telegraph, pioneering the concept of eco-tourism. Although most widely known as Britain's foremost writer on African safaris, he has retained his love of our own wildlife and landscapes.

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword by Simon Barnes

Introduction: A Passion for Nature

HOME GROUND

My Dorset

A Carp Called Harry

Pebbles as Big as Skulls

The Farm that Time Forgot

Waiting for a Bite

The Leys of the Land

Staying Ahead of the Pack

A Forest Fit for Merlin

SOUTH

Looking for Laurie under a Cotswold Sky

In Search of King Alfred

Between the Woods and the Water

Mayfly

The Secret Life of the Fox

WEST AND WALES

Tarka Territory

Sand as Soft as Talc

Where the Land Runs Out

A Passion for Peregrines

Stargazing in Stag Country

The Exe Factor

Lost in Scrumpy Land

Red Kite Country

The Island of the Tides

Slow Train to Yesterday

Lullaby in Roseland

Lord of the Flies

Dartmoor's Dark Age Undercroft

Cul-de-Sac Country

All I Ask Is a Tall Ship

EAST

The Old Man of Brundon

Arthur Ransome's Secret Tideways

Holding Back the Deluge

Life in the Eye of a Lazy Wind

A Winter's Tale

An Owl for Autumn

NORTH

Land of the Steel Bonnets

Dales in Crisis

When the River Rises

Singing in the Rain

SCOTLAND

Islands of the Simmer Dim

Highland Summer

Rum's the Word

Dodging the Bonxies

Wings Over Scotland

Where Eagles Fly

Stormy Seas and Safe Havens

Hefted to the Hills

Listening for the Hounds of Heaven

Acknowledgements