Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Mystery
2. Reflection
3. Discovery
4. Imagination
5. Sensation
6. Vision
7. Feeling
Presence

Promotional Information

A lyrical, critically acclaimed account of the British landscape in writing and art from Beowulf to now

About the Author

Dr Susan Owens is an art historian and exhibition curator who has worked at the Royal Collection and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her previous books include The Ghost: A Cultural History, described by the Guardian as 'eloquent and lively', and Who Shall Deliver Me? Christina Rossetti: Poetry in Art.

Reviews

'Engaging … much of the pleasure of this book – and it is immensely pleasurable – comes from the author’s own enjoyment and her sympathy with her subjects' - Jenny Uglow, Times Literary Supplement

'Original and wide-ranging' - Best Art Books of 2020, Sunday Times

'A wonderfully deft and varied study, full of voices, noticings, and contrasting ways of looking. Owens has a gift for making the past feel so close that we might be riding over a hill with Gerald of Wales or John Leland' - Alexandra Harris, author of 'Weatherland' and 'Romantic Moderns'

'An evocative and crowded chronicle … a book of idylls and nightmares' - Guardian

'Wonderfully fluent and revealing … Owens adroitly mixes literature, art and culture to show how perceptions of the British countryside have changed over the centuries and how artists and writers have been at the vanguard of these shifts … She uses her impressively wide frame of reference effortlessly – and always revealingly – to zoom from panorama to close-up' - Literary Review

'If you think you know the British landscape, think again … This informative, elegant book wears its learning lightly, moving sympathetically through space and centuries and inviting us to become mental travellers, coming with open minds and eyes to the wonders of the British landscape' - Fiona Stafford, author of 'The Long, Long Life of Trees' and 'The Brief Life of Flowers'

'[A] lovely, lyrical study .... gorgeously illustrated and rich in voices … fascinating and personal' - Tatler

'Enchanting … Owens has a poet’s skill for finding the right word or metaphor, lyrical yet spearingly precise' - World of Interiors

'Our understanding of the landscape has always been more imaginary than actual, and Susan Owens brilliantly tells how it has been shaped and re-shaped by way of poetry and novels...a richly embroidered tour of lakes and fenland, mountains and fields, full of insights and surprise' - Book of the Month, Hatchards