Gathering Place

Mary Colwell is an author, producer and campaigner for nature. She has written for The Guardian, BBC Wildlife, The Tablet, Country Life and many other publications. She has made TV and radio documentaries for the BBC Natural History Unit and has published four books: John Muir – The Scotsman Who Saved America’s Wild Places, Curlew Moon, Beak, Tooth and Claw, and The Gathering Place, which was shortlisted for the 2024 Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year.Mary has won a Sony Radio Academy Gold Award, the David Bellamy Award for her conservation work on curlews, the WWT Marsh Award for Conservation, the BTO Dilys Breese Medal for outstanding science communication, the prestigious RSPB Medal and in 2024, the Zoological Society of London's Silver Medal for outstanding contributions to the understanding and appreciation of zoology. In 2020, she set up the charity Curlew Action. Mary also spearheaded the successful campaign to introduce a GCSE in England.

• PrologueChapter 1 - Wooden Staffs and MountainsChapter 2 - Moors and MythsChapter 3 - Witches and ForestsChapter 4 - To The StarsChapter 5 - The Kindness of StrangersChapter 6 - Wine and WonderChapter 7 - War and PeaceChapter 8 - The Unravelling RoadChapter 9 - Stones and SnowChapter 10 - UltreïaEpilogueAcknowledgementsReferences and Further Reading Index

A compelling storyteller, Colwell’s 500-mile pilgrimage is rich with memories, myths and associations from the past. In this deeply poetic journey into an inner and an outer landscape, the natural world is often her only companion, powerfully evoked and brilliantly observed.