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UK Travel - Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places: 500 Ways to Discover the Wild
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List Price: £25.00
Our Price: £17.49
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Allen Lane
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780713999679
ISBN: 0713999675
Label: Allen Lane
Manufacturer: Allen Lane
Number Of Pages: 544
Publication Date: 2008-07-03
Publisher: Allen Lane
Studio: Allen Lane
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: A great starting point for adventures
Comment: Christopher Somerville's book is clearly a work of love for him and its personalised and poetic accounts of some of Britain and Ireland's wild places is immediately accessible.
Wisely he talks of wild places rather than 'wilderness' which as well as difficult to define largely does not, it can be argued, truly exist in the UK. The entries are long enough to entice you to further investigation, he is strong on the history of places, and gives you enough information to seek them out yourself. There are no detailed guided walks or maps for the individual entries which is no bad thing and impossible in any case for a work of this depth. The photographs are largely by the author and they add to its unique feel as they look like the places that you and I visit rather than the ones a professional photographer evokes!
Any book of this nature is a subjective one and its important not to forget the wild places that are less well known on our own doorstep, in a hedgerow, a river valley, or a local wood which are intimate and in no need of 'discovering' by everyone.
My one criticism of the book as it applies to Scotland with which I am more familiar is a strange absence of reference to native forests. Its easy to fall into the habit of equating wild and 'bleak' in this part of the world and I would argue that the important remnants of Caledonian forest and Atlantic oakwoods are far less modified than the open mountain land denuded of forest by man and overgrazing which is seen as 'untouched' in the popular imagination. As such there is no reference bizarrely to Abernethy and Rothiemurchus forests in his entry on the Cairngorm or any reference to places such as say Glen Affric or Ariundle which give a truer glimpse of a wild Scotland.
With these reservations aside it is a book to be welcomed and an excellent addition our enjoyment of these beautiful islands.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Comment: Christopher's latest is a beautiful book to paw over and dip in and out of. The pictures are evocative and inspiring, and the text just takes you there.
Great to keep in your car so that you always have something interesting to deviate off to when your on a journey. The format reminds me of a more lavish version of the old AA or RAC map/guide books that your Dad used to keep in the glove box and I loved to read as a boy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wild about the places
Comment: A culmination of many years of travelling the country, this is a fantastic collection of nooks, crannies and odd corners that have largely gone overlooked by the rest of us as we rush about our daily lives. A visit to any of these places would be time very well spent, but just curling up in a corner with it is a fine form of escape too if circumstances don't allow you to get away.
A perfect partner to 'Places to Hide' by Dixe Wills which similarly takes readers to the most unlikely of places and makes them laugh at the same time, which is quite a feat.
Anyway, I've no hesitation in awarding Somerville five stars for a great idea well executed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: How to take a walk on the wild side
Comment: As soon as I saw this book, I knew that it would appeal to me. At present there are a great number of similarly themed books, all encouraging the reader to relinquish their place from the sofa and instead to get out into the countryside and experience the places within the pages for themselves. BRITAIN AND IRELAND'S BEST WILD PLACES is perhaps one of the best ways of beginning to do exactly that.
The book is organised into regions, beginning with The West Country, moving upwards throughout Britain before fianlly moving across to Ireland.
Each wild place has details of mapping and travel instructions, plus other useful information. For example, in the Republic of Ireland Somerville details the Nephin Beg mountains. Stating that the walk is a long one - 23 miles - he advises that you should not consider doing the walk solo unless very well experienced. And of course, that you should have all of the proper equipment if you do go on it. At the beginning of each section there is also a lovely old style map of the area, illustrating at a glance where each place is located.
For me, the success and delight of this book is the lay-out. You could easily give it as a gift to someone. Many of the wild places have an accompanying colour picture to tempt you, showing just enough of their allure to wet your appetite. But it is also the way that Somerville writes about the places which captures your imagination. The entry for Woodchester Mansion, for example, brilliantly manages to create the sense of the gothic that Somerville describes. Likewise, his entry for the "Bronte moors" shows how such a desolate and wild place could help to mold the literary imaginations of three young women.
This book is an absolute delight. I am so glad I purchased it. Not only because I love walking and the countryside, but also because I love things which can play on my mind and maybe even ignite a creative flame within. This is a book I shall continually dip into whether at home or going away on holiday - as a way to find those unknown places, this is a must.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a great travelling companion
Comment: A lovely book - you feel compelled to read about places you have been to and driven to explore pastures new. A book to refer to on any trip to unfamiliar territory and a fabulous gift for anyone who likes to walk.
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