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Sto caricando le informazioni... Common Grounddi Rob Cowen
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Common Ground: One of Britain’s Favourite Nature Books as featured on BBC’s Winterwatch - Robert Cowan ** I really love nature books, especially those where the author lives in the environment and observes the changing of the seasons, so when I came across Common Ground it seemed the perfect book to read in the midst of the UK winter as we wait for the first warmth of spring to wake nature. I had hoped to find an almost diary of the changing woodlands and based on actual fact, and the reviews seemed to support this. However, it wasn't quite what I expected and therefore I didn't enjoy as much as I thought I would. Rob Cowan and relocated following a redundancy, his partner is pregnant and he senses a depression starting to come over him. To try and escape he decides to explore the 'edge lands', those areas on the outskirts of the urban landscape - not quite wilderness but far enough away for nature to still have a foothold. As he becomes more at one with the wildlife he notices things that the casual wanderer would miss. Coupled with the development of his partners pregnancy it is these experiences that fill the pages. I just didn't like the book. I accept that I am in the minority but it was definitely not what I was expecting. For a start I felt like the author was just trying too hard to come across as intelligent and ended up being long winded. It felt as if he wanted you to be aware of his vast vocabulary and it didn't matter if he used twenty words when 6 would do. I wondered if maybe he was a Guardian columnist? My other big issue was that I wanted a truthful account of the animals he came across, no matter how tedious or mundane, for me that is the magic of the nature observation books. Instead we get the author making up his own history and backgrounds, he writes how the fox lived, how it's parents were killed, the routes it takes when not in the woods and the narrow escapes that allow it to narrowly survive. Why? The author doesn't know any of this? If I had wanted an semi anthropomorphic tale I would have picked a Henry Williamson novel and enjoyed it a great deal more. If I had to describe the book? Well researched, wordy, fictional and self indulgent. Life has a habit of throwing curve balls at you. Cowen has relocated to Yorkshire, has just been made redundant and is confined by the weather to home. Longing for fresh air, sky and space, but not sure of the lie of the land, he ventures out to find somewhere. And on the fringe of a housing estate, he finds it. It is a forgotten area, frequented only by dog walkers and people who hurry through; a piece of land that isn’t wilderness, but feels wild and untamed, unloved and uncared for. Pylons pierce the sky, surrounding this edgeland, reminding you that precious little of the land in the UK is untouched by human hands. And it is in this place that he begins to feel free and to breathe again. Visiting frequently, almost obsessively, he begins to peel back the layers that form this place. With almost forensic level of detail of all he observes, from tracking a fox, the brevity of the mayfly life, the hunt from the perspective of the quarry and the silent, lethal owl. Intertwined thought the books too is an honest account of his anxieties and thoughts on the modern world. He learns to that he is to become a father, and they process of creating a new life is deftly woven into the narrative as his partner grows with his child. 'I am dreaming of the edge-land again' This is nature writing of the highest quality, on a par with some of the finest out there. It is imaginative, immersive, detailed and at certain points haunting. Cowen’s attention to detail is astonishing too, not just seeing, but making deep observations of all he sees, captivating to read. The inclusion of his personal life, gives further depth to the book, but the more novel creations, portraying a hare as someone in a coffee shop for example, really didn’t do anything for me, and jarred with the rest. But other than that, this was excellent. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
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Sensitive, thoughtful and poetic, Rob Cowen rakes over a scrap of land with forensic care, until the ordinary becomes extraordinary.' Michael Palin 'I am dreaming of the edge-land again' After moving from London to a new home in Yorkshire, Rob Cowen finds himself on unfamiliar territory, disoriented, hemmed in by winter and yearning for the nearest open space. So one night, he sets out to find it - a pylon-slung edge-land, a tangle of wood, meadow, field and river on the outskirts of town. Despite being in the shadow of thousands of houses, it feels unclaimed, forgotten, caught between worlds, and all the more magical for it. Obsessively revisiting this contested ground, Cowen ventures deeper into its many layers and lives, documenting its changes through time and season and unearthing histories that profoundly resonate and intertwine with transformative events happening in his own life. Blurring the boundaries of memoir, natural history and novel, Common Groundoffers nothing less than an enthralling new way of writing about nature and our experiences within it. We encounter the edge-land's inhabitants in immersive, kaleidoscopic detail as their voices and visions rise from the fields and woods- beasts, birds, insects, plants and people - the beggars, sages and lovers across the ages. Startlingly personal and poetic,this is a unique portrait of a forgotten realm and a remarkable evocation of how, over the course of a year, a man came to know himself once more by unlocking it. But, above all, this is a book that reasserts a vital truth- nature isn't just found in some remote mountain or protected park. It is all around us. It is in us. Itis us. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)577.428Natural sciences and mathematics Life Sciences, Biology Ecology Conditions of life: moisture, temperatureClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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The Bilton Triangle is in the news again, as once more politicians try to make the case for running a major a ringroad through this precious wild are so near to Harrogate. They should read this book. ( )