Spring marks the genesis of nature's year. As Earth's northern hemisphere tilts ever more towards the life-giving sun, the icy, dark days of winter gradually yield to the new season's intensifying light and warmth. Nature responds...
For our flora and fauna, for the very land itself, this is the time of rebirth and rejuvenation – although, as Jim Crumley attests, spring in the Northlands is no Wordsworthian idyll. Climate chaos and its attendant unpredictable weather brings high drama to the lives of the animals he observes – the badgers, seals and foxes, the seabirds and the raptors. But there is also a wild, elemental beauty to the highlands and islands, a sense of nature in animation during this, the most transformative of seasons. Jim chronicles it all: the wonder, the tumult, the spectacle of spring.
Jim Crumley has written more than thirty books, mostly on the wildlife and wild landscape of his native Scotland. His work has been shortlisted for prestigious awards such as the Wainwright Prize and the Saltire Society Literary Awards. Jim is a widely published journalist and has a monthly column in The Scots Magazine, as well as being a poet and occasional broadcaster on both radio and television.
"Enthralling and often strident."
– Observer
"He could be Ali Smith's naturalist twin."
– Rosemary Goring, Scottish Review of Book
"A fantastic writer [...] exquisite observations of details in the landscape as well as sweeping vistas [...] remarkable."
– Ben Hoare, BBC Countryfile
"Nature writer and poet Jim Crumley returns with a third volume of close observations [and] charts the arrival of spring, from the February song of a mistle thrush to May's drowsy warmth. Crumley quotes Margiad Evans – 'Write in the very now where you find yourself' – and takes her advice to heart."
– New Statesman