UKC

Should be worth a listen:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03mfndd

Via OMR (http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/profile.php?id=24621) on Twitter.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Thanks for the reminder, long been one of my favourite books & I hope they do it justice

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

have you seen http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/27/nan-shepherd-vision-cairngorms... ?

Good to see the reprint has been a success,wonder what her poems are like ?

In reply to Doug:

I hope it's all good; I've just spent my/ our Christmas cash on it

In reply to Doug:

Yes, thanks Doug - Neil linked that article on his original Twitter post.

I've ordered the book too.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Such a great book - one of the best I've read about the Cairngorms I think.

In reply to Only a hill:

Agreed, read like a dream for me.

A wee reminder - 4pm this afternoon.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Another reminder, on in about five minutes.

In reply to Doug:

Many thanks for pointing this out - it was a good listen!

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

A great book,and perhaps without the addition of Macfarlane's lengthy introduction, a book that wouldn't be so widely known. It's clear he's passionate about 'The Living Mountain'.
He writes in the introduction that it 'is a formidably difficult book to describe', spending 25 pages introducing her 108.

I'm not sure why he doesn't just let her writing speak for itself. For me, the Cambridge over-intellectualising of her 'elementals'-which in her own writing leave enough for individual perception- pollute the experience.

Make a work of art and beauty out of the mountain experience, don't then be our clever guide to it.
The Broadcast wasn't all bad. I enjoyed the soundscape of the Wells of Dee and the water falling beyond. There's more audio of that trip here.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/audioslideshow/2013/dec/27/robert-macfarla...

In reply to llechwedd:


I think you are over-criticising; you can always ignore Macfarlane and just read the book if you don't feel he adds anything for you.

I thought both the book and the programme were wonderful.

In reply to Robert Durran:



Difficult to ignore the first 25 pages of a book.
I start at the beginning of a book unless it's the Screwfix Catalogue.
His first page reads easily enough, but before long- Nooo!
It's in my brain now.
'She has an Andy Goldworthy-ish eye' . No, she had her own eye.
'..says Shepherd Zennishly'. No. says Shepherd. In her own way. Directly perceived.
'a Hy Brasil..', 'Merleau-Ponty..' ,. WTF!
Let her speak for herself. That's what her book is doing.

It's not as if he's Ruskin translating the genius of a painter like Turner into words.

Having said that, Macfarlane's Mountains of the mind is a superb book.

In reply to llechwedd:
I agree with you wholeheartdly. That introduction was an unforgiveable indulgence on MacFarlanes part. I read the first 2 pages thn skipped the rest.

In reply to DaveHK:

I'd recommend anything by Adam Watson or Seton Gordon about the Cairn Gorms. These guys really know and knew the place.

In reply to llechwedd:


When a cat's known as "Mr Introduction" he has to live up to his name.

In reply to DaveHK:

..... which is the correct thing to do if you don't like it......llechwedd take note!

In reply to llechwedd:


A rehash of well known mountaineering history which fails to add anything original.

The extraordinary The wild Places, on the other hand, I found an almost life changing read.

In reply to Saor Alba:


I imagine Seton Gordon isn't read much nowadays. He should be. Macfarlane should use his celebrity to chapion him too!

In reply to Robert Durran:


An interesting concept. A bit like almost pregnant?

In reply to Saor Alba:


Have you read Watson's 'It's a Fine Day for the Hill'? I'm intruiged by the title.

On a cairngorm related topic, there's a good breadth of news here too

http://cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2013/07/

In reply to llechwedd:


I have - bought it this time last year. Not cheap, but an absolutely superb book, with several chapters devoted to memoirs of Bob Scott and Tom Patey which ought to be of interest to many on this forum in particular.

There's a review by OMR (aka Neil Reid) here:
http://cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/adam-watson-its-a-fine-da...

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Thanks Douglas.

Which Seton Gordon book would people go for?

In reply to Robert Durran:

In my own neck of the woods, Nant Ffrancon, the artist who creates and transmits that same connectivity to a place, as Nan Shepherd did for the cairngorms, is the painter David Woodford. Very keen also on the subject of elemental associations.

His work is relatively unfashionable these days. He is no mere draughtsman churning out the usual tourist prints of mountains. Here he is, attempting to explain what his work is about ( warning; it's a bit heavy going in places). His paintings speak for themselves though.

http://www.davidwoodford.co.uk/File%20exchange/Catalogue%20PDFs/Elemental%2...

In reply to llechwedd:


I've not read it, but The Cairngorm Hills of Scotland made quite an impression on the young Adam Watson. It's out of print, though.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:



In my local library just managed to reserve Highways and Byways, by SG.
There's also a Cairngorms anthology of SG's writings (not the book you've cited) by Hamish Brown available, and an Adam Watson/SMC Cairngorms book which I've also reserved.
Good old libraries!

In reply to llechwedd:

I have a copy of the Adam Watson SMC Cairngorms guide. A real work of art, that book.

There was a wonderful article about Adam Watson during that exceptionally cold and snowy spell we had here in Aberdeenshire in 2009:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/feb/07/weather

In reply to llechwedd:

Incidentally, my copy of The Living Mountain arrived today. Just dipped into the first chapter, looks very fine indeed.

Happy New Year to all.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Thanks for that link to the great article in the Guardian.

In reply to llechwedd:

As Douglas said, The Cairngorm Hills of Scotland is the one to go for, but also very good on the Cairngorms is his earlier book The Charm of the Hills. Also out of print, but perhaps easier to track down.

In reply to OMR:

Thanks for that.
Keep up the great blog.