The Last Wilderness cover art

The Last Wilderness

A Journey into Silence

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Last Wilderness

By: Neil Ansell
Narrated by: Peter Noble
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

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 Science Travel Writing & Commentary Highlander

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Circling Sky cover art
The Farthest Shore: Seeking Solitude and Nature on the Cape Wrath Trail in Winter cover art
The Peregrine cover art
Wild Winter cover art
The Wild Places cover art
Waiting for the Albino Dunnock cover art
Walking Home cover art
Landmarks cover art
Woodsman cover art
Walking Home cover art
The Stubborn Light of Things cover art
Bothy Tales cover art
Finding Hildasay cover art
Abundance cover art
Hermit cover art
The Lost Rainforests of Britain cover art

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)
All stars
Most relevant
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews