* This award-winning book available in distinctive paperback for the first time ; * Stephen Rutt is widely acknowledged as one of the brightest young stars writing about the natural world, gathering increasing support and recognition ; * Perfect for fans of John Lewis-Stempel's The Secret Life of the Owl; Adam Nicolson's The Seabird's Cry and Madeleine Bunting's Love of Country ; * Praise for Stephen Rutt - The Seafarers and Wintering ; 'A poignant testament to how we can find peace in the rhythms of the natural world.' - The Times, Books of the Year 2019 ; 'Illuminating history and descriptive nature writing...an understated gem.' - Waterstones.com, Gifts for Nature Lovers ; 'Rutt's dreamy prose is as cool and elegant as the season he charts.' - BBC Wildlife
*WINNER* of the Saltire First Book of the Year 2019 / Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2019
'A beautifully illuminating portrait of lives lived largely on the wing and at sea" - Julian Hoffman, author of Irreplaceable and The Small Heart of Things
The British Isles are remarkable for their extraordinary seabird life: spectacular gatherings of charismatic Arctic terns, elegant fulmars and stoic eiders, to name just a few. Often found in the most remote and dramatic reaches of our shores, these colonies are landscapes shaped not by us but by the birds.
In 2015, Stephen Rutt escaped his hectic, anxiety-inducing life in London for the bird observatory on North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of the Orkney Islands. In thrall to these windswept havens and the people and birds that inhabit them, he began a journey to the edges of Britain. From Shetland, to the Farnes of Northumberland, down to the Welsh islands off the Pembrokeshire coast, he explores the part seabirds have played in our history and what they continue to mean to Britain today.
The Seafarers is the story of those travels: a love letter, written from the rocks and the edges, for the salt-stained, isolated and ever-changing lives of seabirds. This beguiling book reveals what it feels like to be immersed in a completely wild landscape, examining the allure of the remote in an over-crowded world.
