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The Circling Sky

On Nature and Belonging in an Ancient Forest

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About this listen

From a 2018 Wainwright Prize shortlisted author, The Circling Sky is part childhood memoir, blended with exquisite nature observation and the story of one man's journey over a year to one of the UK's key natural habitats, the New Forest of Hampshire.

In the form of several journeys, beginning in January 2019, Neil Ansell returns for solitary walks to the New Forest in Hampshire, close to where he was born. With beautiful sightings and observations of birds, trees, butterflies, insects and landscape, this is also a reflective memoir on childhood, on the history of one of the most ancient and important natural habitats in the United Kingdom and on the Gypsies who lived there for centuries - and were subsequently expelled to neighbouring cities. It is also part polemic on our collective and individual responsibility for the land and world in which we live and how we care for it.

As Neil Ansell concludes so eloquently, 'Evolution has no choice in what it does, but we do, as a species, if not always as individuals'.

©2021 Neil Ansell (P)2021 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Environment Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Walking Conservation United Kingdom Habitat
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Excellent thoughtful writing from a lifelong observer of the natural world. Well read and enjoyable throughout.

For fans of Deep Country

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A very good listen , well read and nicely written account of a beautiful part of our natural landscape .

Pleasantly suprised.

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i enjoyed this audible whilst walking in the forest of Dean.. similar in many ways to the new forest. i loved it.. the natural history and the thoughtful reflections

read while walking in nature

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I’m fortunate to live inside the New Forest National Park and have the pleasure of a multitude of bird life, wondering ponies, donkeys, deer, badgers appear outside my secluded woodland garden. Neil has written a love story which would resonate with any lover of the British countryside but all those with respect for giving wildlife space to survive, trumping our own right to exploit the landscape. Come to the New Forest, it is heaven on earth, but come in the spirit of conservation, respect for your environment and for those around you.

Love story of my home

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A great book and easy listen,, , the new forest is where I spent some of my own youth and it took me right back

Such an easy listen

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