Wild Britain: A Traveller's Guide

Author(s): Simon Rigge, Douglas Botting and Chris Schuler

Travel

THE NEW FOREST is hardly the sort of wild or remote place where you would expect to get lost, especially if you are an experienced traveller, but Douglas Botting managed it. 'There were no sounds of civilization to give us a bearing on the outside world, no distinguishable landmark, just trees, and more trees, and clearings, thickets, groves, gullies leading nowhere in particular, and trees again.' As he explains in this warm and lyrical book, it does not do to underestimate wild Britain. He makes a wonderful job of showing you around, taking you from the broad-leaf woodlands of southern England to the wind-lashed basalt and granite cliffs of the Outer Hebrides. Whether he is celebrating the rolling Yorkshire Dales of his childhood, where the lapwings cried and the bluebottles huzzahed in the cowpats, or engaging with the earth-shattering intricacies of plate tectonics, he is always readable and entertaining. He also describes in detail where to go fishing, climbing, cycling, caving, riding, camping and even ballooning, and offers some unusual ideas for where to stay, including the time capsule of Kinloch Castle on the Isle of Rhum, intact in every detail down to the scoreboard of its Edwardian billiard room. This edition of Wild Britain is published in association with Friends of the Earth, and has been thoroughly revised with their help. The entire text has been reset. All names and addresses have been brought up to date, and fax numbers, e-mail addresses and web-site details added. Sustrans cycle routes have been incorporated wherever appropriate, along with other improvements.


Product Information

'Will be enjoyed by everyone who hopes to find unspoiled places off the tourist path.' - The Times. 'Book of the Week... There's plenty of relish in Douglas Botting's text and lots of information about where to stay, what to take and which maps are best.' - The Observer. 'You are put in the places that are mentioned through a blend of expert storytelling and information.' - TNT Magazine.

Douglas Botting is the author of Humboldt and the Cosmos, One Chilly Siberian Morning, Wilderness Europe and other highly regarded travel books. He has won acclaim for his recent biographies: Gavin Maxwell, A Life: The Story of the Man who Wrote Ring of Bright Water and Gerald Durrell: The Authorized Biography.

General Fields

  • : 9781873329313
  • : Sheldrake Press
  • : Sheldrake Press
  • : July 1999
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Simon Rigge, Douglas Botting and Chris Schuler
  • : Simon Rigge, Douglas Botting and Chris Schuler
  • : 224
  • : 224
  • : 3
  • : 3
  • : Paperback
  • : Paperback