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Shortlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2018
I now see that this journey on the water was about finding an external correlation to my inner world. I needed a transmutable world, a fluid space that would allow me to make my own changes.
Leaving her garden to the mercy of the slugs, the Guardian's award-winning writer Alys Fowler set out in an inflatable kayak to explore Birmingham's canal network, full of little-used waterways where huge pike skulk and kingfishers dart.
Her book is about looking beneath the surface, noticing the wild everywhere and what it means to see beauty where you least expect it. Hidden Nature is also the story of Alys Fowler's emotional journey and her coming out as a gay woman.
Beautifully written, honest and very moving, it’s a book about fluidity, change and what happens when someone who has learned to observe her external world in such detail decides to examine her internal world with the same care.
Above all, this book is about losing and finding, exploring familiar places and discovering unknown horizons. A book that examines what it means to change and encourages everyone to pay greater attention to the natural world that lies in even the most ordinary, urban and industrial spaces.
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 9781473623026
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 175 g
Dimensions: 198 x 130 x 14 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
"I felt as if I'd paddled into a new country." The gardening author and Guardian columnist with a distinctive memoir in which she forsakes her garden and takes to paddling Birmingham's little-used canal network in an inflatable kayak. The time and space she allows herself for nature observation--kingfishers, waterlilies, pikes, freshwater mussels and blackberries are all beautifully reflected on--is mirrored by her exploration of her internal self, particularly in the light of leaving her marriage and coming out as gay. An enchanting book which somehow manages to be both gutsy and delightfully soothing. - The Bookseller
In the beautiful memoir Hidden Nature: A Voyage of Discovery, TV gardener Alys Fowler steers a barge around Birmingham's waterways, noting the plants and realising, after 12 years as wife and carer to her husband, that she has fallen in loe=ve with a woman. - Good Housekeeping
This candid book is as much about mapping the heart as it is about mapping the paths of waterways. Lovely. - Simple Things
She writes wonderfully about the species that have carved out a place for themselves amid the discarded shopping trolleys, condom packets and industrial waste - Guardian
Gentle, brave and acutely observant - Woman's Weekly
Hidden Nature is one of the most thrilling things I've read in a long time. - Waterways World
Thoughtful and heartbreakingly honest ...Beautiful. - Press Association
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“Who knew the canals of Birmingham could be so utterly enthralling?”
"The best maps are not published, are not accurate or even sensible, but are the maps we make ourselves about our cities, our kith and kin. These maps are made up of private details that allow us to navigate our... More
“Beautifully written”
One's relationship with nature is very personal and what Alys Fowler does so wonderfully here, is allows us a doorway into her own relationship with it.
From the smallest details, right up to the big stuff - her...
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“Absorbing and Magical”
I absolutely adored this book. Ms Fowler's 'Voyage of Discovery', both internal and external, is honest and fascinating.
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