Kathy Hamilton At times, as a reader, I find myself craving a book that is quiet and contemplative yet filled with inspiration. Usually, I gravitate towards so-called “motivational books” when this happens. But when I encountered The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd, loosely defined as a travel narrative, something really special happened.
The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd fell across my path almost unexpectedly. One of my reading goals is to expand my horizons somewhat. However, as anyone with a favourite genre knows, it can be daunting to begin the search for something “new”. But the idea of reading a book described as “A lyrical testament in praise of the Cairngorms” really appealed to my poetic side.
“In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape. Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the ‘essential nature’ of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us”
I can’t say that I have read a book that was specifically about nature, hill walking or the British landscape. And the beauty of The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd is that she manages to dedicate an entire book to this topic and make it feel like so much more.
This book is an ode to a life spent searching for the essence of a single place: the Cairngorms. It is a testament to dedication and to spending your life becoming an expert in a single thing. More than once, whilst reading it, the idea of living a life in pursuit of one special thing struck me. To understand a single place, totally, rather than trying your hardest to see, discover and be a part of many different places This is what is special about The Living Mountain.
“Light in Scotland has a quality I have not met elsewhere. It is luminous without being fierce, pentrating without being fierce, penetrating to intense distances with an effortless intensisty”
Sometimes there seems to be a culture of travelling as far and as wide as humanly possible. We race from place to place. Hardly taking the time to let on city sink in before we jet off on the next adventure. This is antithetical to Nan’s ethos. The Cairngorms are their own character in The Living Mountain. Nan is merely the narrator. This isn’t a book about the challenge of reaching the summit of a mountain. It’s about a life spent amongst the hills. Knowing them, living amongst them, and being appreciative of the elemental force of them. The way she describes being amongst her familiar hills and lochs makes you wish you could breathe it all in with her.
And in a way you can. The Living Mountain describes a world that is long gone. But the overarching feeling you get from reading it is vitality. This book practically breathes life from every word. It’s vivid and passionate and yet calm and soothing. Honestly, Nan Shepherd literally describes walking the Cairngorms but manages to leave you with a sense that you’ve just read something life-changing.
“The first glance down had shocked me to a heightened power of myself, in which even fear became a rare exhiliration: not that it ceased to be fear, but fear itself, so impersonal, so keenly apprehended, enlarged rather than constricted the spirit.”
Nan Shepherd is not the household name she deserves to be. Her way with words, her expertise in mountaineering and her passion for Scotland should have earned her a place in the canon of great nature writers long before now. Luckily, that seems set to change. She features on a new Scottish five-pound note and her writing has been made available to a new generation thanks to republication.
Just one thing, if you do read The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd don’t let it’s length tempt you to race through it. This is a book that deserves to be read slowly, pondered and ultimately read again. I promise you won’t regret it.
