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The Last Wilderness

A Journey into Silence

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About this listen

Neil Ansell's The Last Wilderness is a mesmerising audiobook on nature and solitude by a writer who has spent his lifetime taking solitary ventures into the wild. For fans of the author's previous book, Deep Country, Robert Macfarlane's The Old Ways or William Atkins' The Moor.

The experience of being in nature alone is here set within the context of a series of walks that Neil Ansell takes into the most remote parts of Britain, the rough bounds in the Scottish Highlands. He illustrates the impact of being alone as part of nature rather than outside it.

As a counterpoint, Neil Ansell also writes of the changes in the landscape and how his hearing loss affects his relationship with nature as the calls of the birds he knows so well become silent to him.

©2018 Neil Ansell (P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd. Biological Sciences Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Travel Writing & Commentary Highlander

Critic reviews

"A gem of a book, an extraordinary tale. Ansell's rich prose will transport you to a real life Narnian world that C.S. Lewis would have envied. Find your deepest, most comfortable armchair and get away from it all." ( Countryfile)
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The journey this book takes you on is beautiful a glimpse into the authors life in every sense I have also always preferred my own company when walking and to have a story told from this perspective was really refreshing read beautifully and emotively can't recommend it enough

Truly great storytelling

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After a recent visit to the Scottish Highlands, I decided I'd like to start consuming books about them and came across this. Well read by the narrator - it's always lovely when it feels like the person reading has written the book themselves. Nature in this book is described beautifully and wasn't at all 'airy fairy', with a strong sense of realism. The writer's philosophical views on life, solitude and getting old were a joyful insight.

Beautifully written..

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Excellent tale of travel and silence. The narration was simply superb. If you like solo travel and introspection, then this is for you.

So peaceful.

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I have been listening to this book in Qatar as I walk in a sweltering heat but through the magic of the description have seen the otters and the dear and have felt the rain. Such a wonderful book so wonderfully read.

Transporting

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I’ve walked many times in The Rough Bounds and I listened to this sat in traffic in the south east of England. Needless to say I’ve just booked train tickets, got my tent ready and found my midge spray. Absolutely wonderful and made me heart sick for those lochs and hills.

Packing my tent

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