Jim Crumley
Jim Crumley is the author of more than forty books, mostly on the wildlife and wild landscape of his native Scotland, many of them making the case for species reintroductions, or โrewildingโ. His Seasons series, a quartet of books exploring the wildlife and landscapes and how climate change is affecting our environment across the four seasons, is highly acclaimed.ย The Nature of Autumn was longlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2017 and shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Society and White Horse Bookshop Literary Prize 2017. The third in the series, The Nature of Spring, was Radio 4’s Book of the Week. The Nature of Summer, was shortlisted for the 2021 Highland Book Prize.ย The Eagleโs Wayย was shortlisted for a prestigious Saltire Society award, and hisย Encounters in the Wild series โ which sees Jim get up close and personal with Britainโs favourite animals โ has found him many new readers. He has written about the return of the beaver to the UKโs wetlands in Natureโs Architect, and his most recent title is Lakeland Wild, his first to focus entirely on an English landscape.ย Lakeland Wildย was longlisted for the 2022 Lakeland Book of the Year prize. Jim is also a poet, an occasional broadcaster on both radio and television and a widely published journalist who wrote columns for the Dundee Courier for many years and has a monthly column in The Scots Magazine.
The Seasons quartet is now available in one handsome hardback edition, Seasons of Storm and Wonder.
Jim’s website can be visited here.
The Nature of Spring
by Jim Crumley
Aย BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, from the author of the Wainwright Prize-longlisted The Nature of Autumn Spring is natureโs season of rebirth and rejuvenation. Earthโs northern hemisphere tilts towards the sun, winter yields to intensifying light and warmth, and a wild, elemental beauty transforms the Highland landscape and a repertoire of islands from Colonsay to Lindisfarne. Jim Crumley chronicles the wonder, tumult and spectacle of that transformation, but he shows too that it is no Wordsworthian idyll that unfolds. Climate chaos brings unwanted drama to the lives of badger and fox, seal and seabird and raptor, pine marten and sand martin. Jim lays bare the impact of global warming and urges us all towards a more daring conservation vision that embraces everything from the mountain treeline to a second spring for the wolf.
REVIEWS OF The Nature of Spring
"Delightful โฆ The lyrical prose elevates Crumleyโs detailed descriptions of the natural world he encounters โฆ Readers will be transported by this immersive outing." Publishers Weekly
"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 Mayโs drowsy warmth. Crumley quotes Margiad Evans โ โWrite in the very now where you find yourselfโ โ and takes her advice to heart." New Statesman
"There are books that transport us and Jim Crumleyโs ode to spring takes us there on the wings of a sea eagle โฆ Exquisitely observed โฆ uplifting and disquieting โฆ Crumleyโs masterful words take you into the canvas of nature as into the work of a grand master โฆ The joy, the passion, the complete understanding Jim has for his world is a portal. The world on our doorstep." Scottish Book of the Week, The Courier
"This thought-inducing paean to nature brings the issues of the natural world to the forefront โฆ Crumley writes movingly about the season of rebirth and transformation which sees the hibernators awaken and the daffodils rise. A wonderful read." Kirstin Tait, Scottish Field
"A fantastic writer โฆ exquisite observations of details in the landscape as well as sweeping vistas โฆ remarkable." Ben Hoare, BBC Countryfile magazine
"Compelling โฆ Radical โฆ Crumley writes of the creatures and landscape before him like a James Guthrie or Landseer of print โฆ He could be Ali Smithโs naturalist twin." Rosemary Goring, Scottish Review of Books
"Beautifully written โฆ thoughtful and thought-provoking โฆ Jim Crumley does not shy away from the important issues facing the natural world [in] a book youโd like to think could have real influence on the world we live in." Undiscovered Scotland
