A colorful gift of words and art from two of the West's most knowledgeable and talented naturalists.

Shortlisted: 2016 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature '[Wild Country] chronicles not just the mountains [Mark] has climbed, but the part he played in bringing to market a little piece of sporting equipment that revolutionised mountaineering and saved countless lives.' – Sarah Freeman, Yorkshire Post In early 1978, an extraordinary new invention for rock climbers was featured on the BBC television science show Tomorrow's World. It was called the 'Friend', and it not only made the sport safer, it helped push the limits of the possible. The company that made them was called Wild Country, the brainchild of Mark Vallance. Within six months, Vallance was selling Friends in sixteen countries. Wild Country would go on to develop much of the gear that transformed climbing in the 1980s. Mark Vallance's influence on the outdoor world extends far beyond the company he founded. He owned and opened the influential retailer Outside in the Peak District and was part of the team that built The Foundry, Sheffield's premier climbing wall – the first modern climbing gym in Britain. He worked for the Peak District National Park and served on its board. He even found time to climb 8,000-metre peaks and the Nose on El Capitan. Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his mid fifties and robbed of his plans for retirement, Vallance found a new sense of purpose as a reforming president of the British Mountaineering Council. In Wild Country, Vallance traces his story, from childhood influences like Robin Hodgkin and Sir Jack Longland, to two years in Antarctica, where he was base commander of the UK's largest and most southerly scientific station at Halley Bay, before his fateful meeting with Ray Jardine, the man who invented Friends, in Yosemite. Trenchant, provocative and challenging, Wild Country is a remarkable personal story and a fresh perspective on the role of the outdoors in British life and the development of climbing in its most revolutionary phase.

"Wolf Brother" is an incredible novel about Jonathan, an out-and-out Hawk Apache who returns to his tribe after spending six years in the white man's schools. The amusing characters in this work make it an entertaining read for the young ones.

A guidebook to 50 walks in and around the North Pennines National Landscape, spanning Northumberland, Cumbria and County Durham. Exploring the region’s striking scenery, routes range from riverside strolls to rugged moorland hikes. The walks, of between 9 and 24km (6–15 miles), can be accessed from Hexham, Alston and Barnard Castle. 1:50,000 OS maps included for each walk Sized to easily fit in a jacket pocket Notes on refreshments and public transport Local points of interest and folklore, plus information on the region’s rich geology, plantlife and wildlife Walks are divided between 13 sections throughout the National Landscape

Book Review

First published in 1982. People care about places. Inhabitants demand more participation in the changes proposed for their local environments, activists urge greater protection of countryside and natural environments, decision-makers feel threatened by the antagonism aroused by their powers and plans. The essays in this book have been drawn together to discover what lies behind these expressions of concern and discontent. Valued environments are places for which people feel commitment and affection, places which support a sense of personal identity and well-being. The authors explore the character and constituents of valued environments asking how our experiences of environments may be enhanced. What is the impact of environmental change? How can the future be accommodated in both rural and urban environments without destroying their essential qualities? The reader will find substantive evidence from case studies of environments valued by inhabitants and outsiders which answer these questions. Examples are taken from wilderness areas, fenland, market towns and large cities, commercial streets and residential neighbourhoods, environments of the past and those imagined in science fiction. The essays are united in their focus on the meaning of places and landscapes. The subtle but highly significant role of valued environments is examined thoroughly in the book. It will be of interest to all who care deeply about their surroundings, reflecting perhaps some of their own experiences as well as conveying information about the environmental experiences of others. Students of geography, environmental planning and conservation should also find the book directly relevant to their interests in man-environment relationships.

John Mulgan was part of a gifted yet uneasy group of young New Zealanders who made their mark between the wars - men such as Ian Milner, James Bertram, Dan Davin and Geoffrey Cox. An Oxford graduate, he worked as a publisher at Oxford University Press before leaving for the front in World War Two. Fascinated but sometimes troubled by his home country, Mulgan saw New Zealand as a place of challenge and austere demands, a land that produced men more practical than cultivated. In his famous novel, Man Alone, he depicted it as a tough, often heartless country, characterised by the solitary figure who has come to symbolise the male New Zealand psyche. He wrote more warmly of the place and the people in the poignant memoir, Report on Experience, published after his death. Mulgan was a glamorous figure: handsome, gifted and good at anything he attempted. His last years were spent fighting in the Allied cause in Egypt and Greece, where he distinguished himself. But there were darker threads, too, which culminated in his decision to take his own life in Cairo, just after the end of the war and aged only 33. In this penetrating biography, Vincent O'Sullivan draws on a large collection of personal papers, official records and contemporary memoirs to paint a vivid portrait of a man who came to represent so much about his country and his time.