Description

**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4**

‘A master nature writer’ (New York Times) provides the ultimate natural, social and cultural history of the Arctic landscape.

The author of Horizon’s classic work explores the Arctic landscape and the hold it continues to exert on our imagination.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANE

Lopez’s journey across our frozen planet is a celebration of the Arctic in all its guises. A hostile landscape of ice, freezing oceans and dazzling skyscapes. Home to millions of diverse animals and people. The stage to massive migrations by land, sea and air. The setting of epic exploratory voyages.

In crystalline prose, Lopez captures the magic of the Arctic: the essential mystery and beauty of a continent that has enchanted man’s imagination and ambition for centuries.

‘The Arctic dreamland seen and described by a writer of rare perception and poetic descriptive power… The pages sparkle with Arctic light’ Scotsman

Publisher Review

By what comes close to sheer magic, the magic of a highly literate and perceptive naturalist, Barry Lopez has transformed the austerity and Sibelius-like gloom of the tundra and great ice walls into a living pageant of high latitudes. This book will become a classic within its genre * John Hillaby * Dazzling... Treats the distant, snowy world of the Arctic as a place that exists not only in the mathematics of geography but also in the terra incognita of our imaginations -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times * Barry Lopez by some rare magic manages to combine a poetic vision with accuracy of observation; and although he writes mainly about Eskimos, polar bears, and other denizens of the frozen north, many of his perceptive insights apply the world over -- Paula Johnson * Mail on Sunday * A marvellous evocation of the Arctic by a naturalist, who is part poet... A magical book to read slowly and savour -- Gillian Somerville-Large * Irish Times * The Arctic dreamland seen and described by a writer of rare perception and poetic descriptive power... The pages sparkle with Arctic light -- David Stephen * Scotsman *