Across Norway, Kenya, the Isle of Skye and Lindisfarne,  Doubling  Back  traces the contours of history. Following paths long mythologised by  writers and relatives gone before, Linda Cracknell charts how places  immortalised in writing and memory create portals; wrinkles in time and  geography that allow us to walk in the footsteps of others.  

Join Linda as she traverses the dangerous crevasses of the Swiss  alps to retrace the mountaineering past of the father she barely knew, follows the escape route of  a  Norwegian scientist on the run in the second world war,  or simply  celebrates the joy found in the ‘friendly paths’ of her local, regular terrain, and the ritual of returning home.

Originally published in 2014 to rave reviews and serialised on BBC radio, this revised edition includes  an account of a new journey through northern Scotland’s Flow Country,  the peatland  that is our chief Carbon store. As the century is almost one quarter  through, Linda doubles back once more to reflect on our future  on this fragile Earth.

Climbing is a sport of perception, and our level of attainment is a matter of mind as much as body.  

Written by philosopher, essayist, and lifelong climber Francis Sanzaro,  The Zen of Climbing  explores the fundamentals of successful climbing, delving into psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and Taoism. Awareness, Sanzaro argues, is the alchemy of climbing, allowing us to merge mental and physical attributes in one embodied whole. This compact volume, by the author of the classic  The Boulder: A Philosophy of Bouldering,  puts the climber’s mind at the forefront of practice.

For Linda Cracknell, exposure to wind, rock, mist, and salt water is integral to her writing process. She follows Susan Sontag’s advice to “Love words, agonise over sentences, and pay attention to the world,” observing and writing her landscapes from the particulars of each moment.  

In this varied essay collection, Linda backpacks on a small island that is connected to the mainland only at low tide. In winter snow, she hikes the wooded hillside close to her home, a place she is intimately familiar with in all seasons. And she retraces over three days the steps of a trek made by her parents seven decades earlier. She explores her inspirations, in nature and from other artists and their work, and she offers thoughtful writing prompts.  

Reading this collection will take you to new places, open your eyes to the world, and suggest ways to take note and make notes as you go-to inspire your own attentive looking, journaling, and writing practice.  

Birds are beloved for their song and have featured in our own music for centuries. This charming volume takes us on a journey of discovery to explore why birds appear in so many folk songs.

Today, folk songs featuring our feathered friends are themselves something of a threatened species: their melodies are fading with the passage of time, and their lyrics are often tucked away in archives. It is more important than ever that we promote awareness of these precious songs and continue to pass them down the generations. Lifetimes of wisdom are etched into the words and music, preserving the natural rhythms of nature and our connection to  times past.

An important repository and treasury of bird-related folk songs,  Singing Like Larks  is also an account of one young nature writer’s journey into the world of folk music, and a joyous celebration of song, the seasons, and our love of birds.

Karen Lloyd takes us on a deeply personal journey around the 60 miles of coastline that make up ‘nature’s amphitheatre’.

Embarking on a series of walks that take in beguiling landscapes and ever-changing seascapes, Karen tells the stories of the places, people, wildlife and history of Morecambe Bay. So we meet the King’s Guide to the Sands, discover forgotten caves and islands that don’t exist, and delight in the simple beauty of an oystercatcher winging its way across the ebbing tide.

As we walk with Karen, she explores her own memories of the bay, making an unwitting pilgrimage through her own past and present, as well as that of the bay. The result is a singular and moving account of one of Britain’s most alluring coastal areas.

The North of England abounds with beauty, from unspoiled beaches in Northumberland to the dramatic Lakeland Fells, for so  long celebrated by writers and artists. Wide estuaries, winding rivers, sheer cliffs, rushing waterfalls, ancient woodland, limestone pavements, and miles of hedgerows and drystone walls sustainably built and rebuilt over centuries – all form part of its rich heritage.

But these are, too, contested and depleted landscapes. Today the curlew’s call is isolated, and many other species are in decline. Industry, urban sprawl and climate chaos threaten our environment on a previously unimagined scale. And while stereotypes persist – of dark satanic mills or “bleak” moorland – the imperative of conservation is all too often overlooked for short-term economic interests.

This essential volume reminds us how and why Northern people have risen to the challenge of defending their open spaces, demanding action on pollution and habitat loss. Contemporary writers including Sarah Hall, Lee Schofield, Benjamin Myers and Lemn Sissay take their place alongside  those who wrote in previous centuries. Together, the voices in this one-of-a-kind anthology testify that North Country is a place apart.

Were these the earliest such monuments in Britain, placing Cumbria at the heart of Neolithic society? And what traces of that society remain today in the roads we travel, the food we eat, the words we speak, our work and play? By observing and comparing many sites in Cumbria and beyond, and researching many sources, a greater understanding emerges.

Were some circles built for ritualistic purposes, or perhaps astronomical? Were they burial sites? Or were they just places for people to meet?

Illustrated with linocut illustrations by artist Denise Burden, Ring of Stone Circles follows the search for the hidden stories these monuments guard – and might reveal if we get to know them.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 GORDON BURN PRIZE

‘A page-turning blast.’ Times

‘Genuinely affecting ? a very funny book.’ Guardian

‘Burstingly alive and engaging.’ Telegraph

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED HIS BLOODY PROJECT.

‘I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger.’

London, 1965. An unworldly young woman suspects charismatic psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite of involvement in a death in her family. Determined to find out more, she becomes a client of his under a false identity. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything.

In Case Study, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents both sides: the woman’s notes and the life of Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling, page-turning and wickedly humorous meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.