The father of modern British nature writing turns his attention to the weather and its effects not just on the landscape and natural world but also on the national psyche in this lyrical and utterly immersive volume.
In his trademark style, Richard Mabey weaves together science, art and memoirs (including his own) to show the weather's impact on our culture and national psyche. He rambles through the myths of Golden Summers and our persistent state of denial about the winter; the Impressionists' love affair with London smog, seasonal affective disorder (SAD - do we all get it?) and the mysteries of storm migraines; herrings falling like hail in Norfolk and Saharan dust reddening south-coast cars; moonbows, dog-suns, fog-mirages and Constable's clouds; the fact that English has more words for rain than Inuit has for snow; the curious eccentricity of country clothing and the mathematical behaviour of umbrella sales.
We should never apologise for our obsession with the weather. It is one of the most profound influences on the way we live, and something we all experience in common. No wonder it's the natural subject for a greeting between total strangers: 'Turned out nice again.'
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
ISBN: 9781781251812
Number of pages: 112
Dimensions: 178 x 110 x 14 mm
Weight: 68 g
Language: English
Edition: Main
[An] amiable ramble around the great British Obsession - David Sexton, Evening Standard
Mabey's prose moves lightly between myth and memoir, infusing everyday weather with a little glamour. - James Vincent, the Financial Times
Turned Out Nice Again is a thoughtful and elegantly written addition to 'that ceaseless, nagging narrative we British have about the weather' - Richard Hambly, TLS
The Walking Cure
Raising Hare
The Hidden Seasons
Is a River Alive?
The Almanac 2027
The Book of Birds
Entangled Life
The Place of Tides
The Land in Winter
A Training School for Elephants
The Story of Birds
Stone Lands
RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds
Many of us are susceptible to the beauty and the majesty of our natural world, but few of us can impart such beauty with the written word but one of the greatest writers who can is Richard Mabey.
Turned Out Nice Again...
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This is a charming little book about the relationship between the British and the weather; the title is the greeting that two strangers will normally exchange rather then hello.
It is a very short book, on 90 pages,...
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I read this in the course of two flights, it's a really quick read. The amount of analysis and information Mabey was able to squeeze into such a short book is really impressive, and he refreshingly focuses on the... More
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