Haunting, moving and revelatory, Cowen’s exquisite collection of 35 poems illuminating the role of nature during the pandemic captures the beauty prevalent in even the most trying of times and is adorned with Hayes’ stunningly evocative illustrations.
The world changed in 2020. Gradually at first, then quickly and irreversibly, the patterns by which we once lived altered completely.
The Heeding paints a picture of a year caught in the grip of history, yet filled with revelatory perspectives close at hand: a sparrowhawk hunting in a back street; the moon over a town with a loved-one's hand held tight; butterflies massing in a high-summer yard - the everyday wonders and memories that shape a life and help us recall our own.
Across four seasons and thirty-five luminous poems and illustrations, Rob Cowen and Nick Hayes lead us on a journey that takes its markers and signs from nature and a world filled with fear and pain but beauty and wonder too. Collecting birds, animals, trees and people together, The Heeding is a profound meditation to a time no-one will forget.
At its heart, this is a book that helps us look again, to heed: to be attentive to this world we share and this history we're living through, to be aware of how valuable and fragile we are, to grieve what's lost and to hope for a better and brighter tomorrow.
Publisher: Elliott & Thompson Limited
ISBN: 9781783965977
Number of pages: 112
Dimensions: 216 x 138 mm
'So powerful, and rich, and true. Every line in The Heeding feels freshly discovered, full of urgency and clarity. This is an exceptionally moving and beautiful book.’ Nick Drake, poet and author of Out of Range
‘A dazzling collection of words and images.’ Helen Jukes, author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings
‘Poignant and exquisite.’ Lucy Jones, author of Losing Eden
‘It is rare to find a writer that is able to tease apart the threads that make up the fragile fabric of our loves, hopes and despairs with such care and humility. An exceptionally good book for an exceptionally bad time.' Matt Gaw, author of Under the Stars
‘Writing that finds light in the dark... Poignant, powerful, pressing.’ Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment
‘A raw, dark and tender, visually stunning, emotionally unravelling distillation of the year in which minutes were endless but whole months disappeared. It’s all here.’ Dr Amy-Jane Beer, author of The Flow
The Heeding is a beautiful collaboration between writer Rob Cowen, author of Common Ground and writer and illustrator Nick Hayes, author of The Book of Trespass. Their styles of writing and illustrating meld... More
"The Heeding" is an excellent collection of thirty-five poems by Rob Cowen, written during and inspired by the pandemic of 2020 and hauntingly Illustrated by Nick Hayes with drawings which sometimes lean... More
Had been looking forward to this and I am currently reading it. I do not want it to end. Rob Cowen takes the raw and straw of the pandemic and spins it into gold. In the introduction he talks of his... More
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