Wild About Britain

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.

Picked by Stephen Moss for The Guardian's best nature books of 2017 list. " Wild About Britain by veteran travel writer Brian Jackman (Bradt) will come as a pleasant surprise to those who know the author only for his matchless prose on African wildlife." Stephen Moss "Brian Jackman's descriptions of landscape and atmosphere transport you into marvellous places." BBC Wildlife Magazine

Préface
. Award-winning writing from one of Britain's longest established and most respected nature and travel writers, currently writing for The Daily Telegraph . Follows on the success of The Marsh Lions and The Savannah Diaries . Foreword by Simon Barnes . Illustrations by Jonathan Truss, twice winner of the Frozen Planet category of the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year . Covers locations across Britain, from Cornwall to Shetland, East Anglia to the Welsh marches . Includes 'Laurie Lee's Cotswolds': 2017 is the 100th anniversary of Laurie Lee's move to Slad . Includes 'Tarka Territory': 2017 is the 90th anniversary of the publication of Tarka the Otter . Wide publicity expected through The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, Country Living and Country Life

Auteur
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.

Contenu
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