Two books about wide open spaces

I can't be certain but I think I must have been around three or four when I first stood on  a mountain top. It would have been Mynydd Crug just up from where we were living. Even back then I sensed there was something special about such places. It is this sense of the numinous that I find in many of our walks on Dartmoor: the notion that there are places which chime mysteriously with the human spirit and which drew our ancestors to them just as we are drawn there now. Some call it the 'Spirit of Place' and, in my experience, they can't be sought out - you just know when you've come across one. They can spring up in the most unexpected places and at unexpected times. I expect we all have them.

I carried my thoughts on the 'Spirit of Place' into two books I've read recently. From their reviews, it sounded as if both authors had captured the essence of their subjects and I was keen to find out how they did it. After completing both, I think one did and the other didn't.

The first one, entitled 'The Moor', was written by William Atkins and purports to explore the lives, landscape and literature of England's moorland areas. I know two of these (Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor) pretty well and one (Exmoor) reasonably well.  His descriptions of these I found unconvincing and they came across as a travel guide more than anything else. If he couldn't convince me that he'd captured the spirit of the places I knew, how could I believe him when he ventured further north to Yorkshire and Northumberland? A disappointing book and not one that I'd recommend to anyone who loves the wide open spaces.

The second book was a complete contrast. Written by Nan Shepherd, it is almost elegiac when compared to the first. In 'The Living Mountain' Nan details her walks, hikes and climbs in the Cairngorms. She clearly loves the terrain and her writing resounds with the 'Spirit of Place' time and time again. There is an anonymous quote on the back of my copy: "The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain."  Ho, ho, publisher's hyperbole, I thought. After about three pages, I began to see why those words had been written. After about 11 pages, I was hooked. Quite simply, it's a masterpiece. £10 might seem a lot for a book barely over 100 pages long. But it's not: it's over 1,000 pages long, because I know that I'm going to read it at least 10 times – and find something different in it each time. She says of the Cairngorms exactly how I feel about Dartmoor: "However often I walk on them, these hills hold astonishment for me. There is no getting accustomed to them." She understands the 'Spirit of Place': a kindred soul. Read it and be captivated.