No wilderness, and why we're a little bit worried
This week's Pinnacle Reads: links of interest on nature, the outdoors, writing, and publishing
Hello and welcome to the first instalment of Pinnacle Reads. This is the new incarnation of my long-running ‘What I’ve been reading this week’ weekly slot on my blog, but with the Pinnacle Newsletter’s move to Substack I have decided to return my weekly links of interest back to the newsletter – which feels like a better overall fit.
From now on, the Pinnacle Reads slot will be published biweekly. On the in-between weeks I will send out ‘feature’ newsletters containing an article or story.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you find something of interest here.
As a reminder, you have received this because you subscribed to my Pinnacle Newsletter. It looks a bit different this time because this is my first newsletter sent through the Substack platform. Other than the tweaks outlined above, there will be no further changes to the newsletter in the near future.
No Wilderness: Reshaping The Way We Talk About Far North Places – Gail Anthea Brown reminds us to see through the notions of remoteness and romanticism that always get bound up with any conversation about the Highlands. As someone who has both lived in these places and been a visitor seeking isolation and wildness, I’m keenly aware of the fine line here, and I regularly ask myself if I’m being honest in my own writing. I like to remind myself that ‘the wild’ is always a home to someone, even if it’s non-human life. Gail says: ‘It’s a reaction I’ve encountered many times before… The idea that here at the very top of the Scottish mainland we are able to live separately from the various turnings of the world. A narrative that trumpets the far north as an escape and a wilderness propels this idea forward on the wheels of social media posts and tourism campaigns that bear little resemblance to reality.’
Why we’re a little bit worried – much I can identify with here. As the world gradually eases back to something a bit more like normality, travel and outdoor writers begin to feel a little anxious. ‘I am anxious because I feel pressure. Pressure to be on. Pressure to be busy. Pressure to be successful.’
The Chomolungma Varieties: struggles of an apprentice audiobook narrator – a great blog post here by one of my editorial clients, Mark Horrell, on the process of turning an independently published book into an audiobook.
The man who saw everything – Richard Mabey’s books can teach us much about noticing, and about the future. The thing that strikes me most about this piece is Mabey’s extensive knowledge of the nature world, and how nature writing cannot truly exist without knowledge. Robert MacFarlane describes Mabey here as ‘a proper field naturalist, an ecological ethicist, a superb stylist, and – in today’s parlance – a disrupter.’
Wild Winter – Wild Winter, the new book by John D. Burns from Vertebrate Publishing, and structurally edited by me, is now on sale. Here’s an extract from the book on Walkhighlands.
Sky Dances With Hen Harriers And A Golden Couple – splendid raptor images here from Pete Walkden on Mull.
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust encourages people to be responsible and look after nature this spring – it’s easy to glibly share this and then forget about it, but this is truly crucial guidance and I worry that many will be unaware of how important this is. The risk of disturbance is always there, and especially right now with lockdown restrictions easing. Many species are highly sensitive to disturbance.
Return to the Hills Again: Meall a’ Bhuachaille Again – Chris Townsend has been back to the mountains with the easing of lockdown.
The Storm That Wasn’t In A Hurry – Andrew Terrill tells the story of a snowstorm.
Why walkers should say yes to windfarms – an interesting perspective here from Ronald Turnbull. My own stance on upland wind farms has changed significantly in recent years, partly thanks to conversations with a family member who is an ecologist mainly working on potential wind farm sites. ‘This was a different form of hillwalking. Not a nicer form – certainly not that. But atmospheric, weird, and certainly different. Let’s say I didn’t expect to enjoy the windfarm crossing at all; and in the event, I enjoyed it slightly more than I expected.’
We need more than ‘be nice’ from the updated Countryside Code – Carey Davies criticises the updated version of the Countryside Code, which can charitably be described as spineless and pathetically underfunded, and asks where we go from here in light of the new challenges being faced by the countryside. ‘Railing angrily at this behaviour is understandable, but ultimately, the behaviour itself has to be seen in the context of the weight we attach to environmental education in wider society.’
Recently published
I’ve put a few posts up over on my blog:
Are we being good role models for wild camping? – a few thoughts about how we can be ambassadors for responsible wild camping as the problem of ‘dirty camping’ once again raises its ugly head.
Field Notes – Isolation and Connection a journey through Knoydart – background info and additional photos to supplement my recent TGO feature, ‘Isolation and Connection’.
Wildlife photography highlights, March 2021 – It’s been a great start to the year’s wildlife photography season
Until next time,
Alex
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Hi Alex, looking good here on Substack. One thing: the contrast of the links is not that great. Maybe try another color and/or underlining the links. Cheers, Kevin