Items related to Common Ground
Shortlisted for the 2015 Portico Prize for Non-Fiction
'Sensitive, thoughtful and poetic ... leading us into a whole new way of looking at the world' Michael Palin
'Absolutely mesmerizing, utterly beautiful and engrossing' Joanne Harris
After moving from London to a new home in Yorkshire, and about to become a father for the first time, Rob Cowen finds himself in unfamiliar territory. Disoriented, hemmed in by winter and yearning for open space, he ventures out to a nearby edge-land: a pylon-slung tangle of wood, hedge, field, meadow and river that lies unclaimed and overlooked on the outskirts of town.
Digging deeper into this lost landscape, he begins to uncover its many layers and lives – beast, bird, insect, plant and people – in kaleidoscopic detail. As the seasons change and the birth of his child draws closer, his transformative journey into the blurry space where human and nature meet becomes increasingly profound. In bringing this edge-land to life, Cowen offers both a both a unique portrait of people and place through time and an unforgettable exploration of the common ground we share with the natural world, the past and each other.
'Sensitive, thoughtful and poetic ... leading us into a whole new way of looking at the world' Michael Palin
'Absolutely mesmerizing, utterly beautiful and engrossing' Joanne Harris
After moving from London to a new home in Yorkshire, and about to become a father for the first time, Rob Cowen finds himself in unfamiliar territory. Disoriented, hemmed in by winter and yearning for open space, he ventures out to a nearby edge-land: a pylon-slung tangle of wood, hedge, field, meadow and river that lies unclaimed and overlooked on the outskirts of town.
Digging deeper into this lost landscape, he begins to uncover its many layers and lives – beast, bird, insect, plant and people – in kaleidoscopic detail. As the seasons change and the birth of his child draws closer, his transformative journey into the blurry space where human and nature meet becomes increasingly profound. In bringing this edge-land to life, Cowen offers both a both a unique portrait of people and place through time and an unforgettable exploration of the common ground we share with the natural world, the past and each other.
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Review:
"One of the most original books of 2015." (Melissa Harrison Books of the Year, The Times)
"Bold and beautiful." (Robert Macfarlane New Statesman)
"Cracking... Vividly and movingly described... Cowen writes very well." (Alan Bennett London Review of Books)
"Absolutely mesmerising, utterly beautiful, utterly engrossing – it takes a lot for a book to give me goosebumps but this one did." (Joanne Harris Simon Mayo Drivetime BBC Radio 2)
"[A] multi-faceted, touched-by-genius exploration of a stretch of Harrogate wasteland." (John Lewis-Stempel Sunday Express, Books of the Year)
"Marks out Cowen as a new writer who is both entertaining and significant... Cowen’s descriptive writing is visceral and gripping... and his attention to colour is particularly striking." (Richard Benson Independent)
"Magical... Deeply original... a detailed nature study [and] a moving memoir... I became both intrigued and enchanted by this hybrid approach." (Sara Maitland Countryfile magazine, Book of the Month)
"Highly poetic... like an archaeologist, Cowen unearths histories, natural life and decayed infrastructure in a small area bordering the River Nidd... Above all, Common Ground is about the transformative power of this unnoticed piece of land, if one can only stand and stare for long enough'" (Serena Tarling Financial Times)
Book Description:
"Bold and beautiful." (Robert Macfarlane New Statesman)
"Cracking... Vividly and movingly described... Cowen writes very well." (Alan Bennett London Review of Books)
"Absolutely mesmerising, utterly beautiful, utterly engrossing – it takes a lot for a book to give me goosebumps but this one did." (Joanne Harris Simon Mayo Drivetime BBC Radio 2)
"[A] multi-faceted, touched-by-genius exploration of a stretch of Harrogate wasteland." (John Lewis-Stempel Sunday Express, Books of the Year)
"Marks out Cowen as a new writer who is both entertaining and significant... Cowen’s descriptive writing is visceral and gripping... and his attention to colour is particularly striking." (Richard Benson Independent)
"Magical... Deeply original... a detailed nature study [and] a moving memoir... I became both intrigued and enchanted by this hybrid approach." (Sara Maitland Countryfile magazine, Book of the Month)
"Highly poetic... like an archaeologist, Cowen unearths histories, natural life and decayed infrastructure in a small area bordering the River Nidd... Above all, Common Ground is about the transformative power of this unnoticed piece of land, if one can only stand and stare for long enough'" (Serena Tarling Financial Times)
Immersive, evocative and powerful, Common Ground is a unique evocation of how, over the course of one year, Rob Cowen discovered a common - though extraordinary - square mile of wood, meadow, hedge and river on the edge of his northern town.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherHutchinson
- Publication date2015
- ISBN 10 009195455X
- ISBN 13 9780091954550
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages352
- Rating
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 304 pages. Immersive and exquisite; evocative and powerful, C ommon Ground is a unique evocation of how, over the course of one year, Rob Cowen came to discover a forgotten realm and its inhab itants. This was not some distant jungle or craggy peak, but half a square mile of wood, meadow, hedge and river on the edge of a northern town, to which he'd moved to after seven years of living in London. An old map given as a Christmas present revealed this little patch of green to be just out of his door and beyond the last housing estate. This was the beginning of a total absorptio n in this seam of land and the animals within it. Through daily a nd often nightly pilgrimages, voices began to rise from the field s, woods and old railway line. And over the course of that year, the stories and histories of this place and its occupants began t o mirror and illuminate events happening in Rob's own life: birth , death, fatherhood. Common Ground offers nothing less than a ne w way of writing and reading about nature and our experiences wit hin it. Here, the perspectives of this edge-land's inhabitants ar e set before us in kaleidoscopic detail: a fox; tawny owl; hare; badger; butterfly; swift; mayfly; roe deer; nettles; people acros s the ages. Through the lives of all of these - and the passage o f Cowen's year - we are offered a layered, intimate and startling portrait of a single piece of common ground. For it is a microco sm of our world at large: beautiful, connected, terrifying, growi ng closer to the edge every day. Editorial Reviews About the Au thor ROB COWEN is an award-winning journalist who currently write s two newspaper columns: one on woodland, 'Tales from the trees' for the Independent and one on the outdoors, 'Get out more' for t he Telegraph. The Guardian cited him as 'one of the UK's most exc iting nature writers' and he has previously been granted the Roge r Deakin Award by the Society of Authors for his co-authored 'how to' guide, Skimming Stones and Other Ways of Being in the Wild. Rob regularly appears on TV and radio to talk nature and our rela tionship with it. His BBC Radio 3 documentary 'The Ospreys of Loc h Garten' was broadcast in 2013 and he recently advised on and fe atured in the film 'Project Wild Thing', about nature deficit dis order. Rob also delivers speeches and workshops on nature and lan dscape for a wide range of organisations including The National T rust and the British Army, and at festivals and literary events. Seller Inventory # 994b
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