Hidden Nature, Alys Fowler
Hidden Nature, Alys Fowler
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Hidden Nature
A powerful memoir of exploration and self-discovery

Author: Alys Fowler

Narrator: Miranda Cook

Unabridged: 7 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/06/2017

Synopsis

Leaving her garden to the mercy of the slugs, award-winning writer Alys Fowler set out in an inflatable kayak to explore Birmingham's canal network, full of little-used waterways where huge pike skulk and kingfishers dart.

Her book is about noticing the wild everywhere and what it means to see beauty where you least expect it. What happens when someone who has learned to observe her external world in such detail decides to examine her internal world with the same care?

Beautifully written, honest and very moving, Hidden Nature is also the story of Alys Fowler's emotional journey: above all, this book is about losing and finding, exploring familiar places and discovering unknown horizons.

(P)2017 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

About Alys Fowler

Alys Fowler is a queer gardener and writer.She has contributed to the Financial Times, Gardens Illustrated, The Observer Food Monthly, The National Geographic and Country Living and used to have a weekly column on gardening for The Guardian Weekend Magazine. Alys trained at Royal Horticultural Society Wisley, The New York Botanical Gardens, and The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and has a masters from UCL in Science, Society and the Environment. She has presented on BBC's Gardeners' World, The Great British Garden Revival, Our Food, and her own six-part series The Edible Garden. She regularly contributes to radio.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jean on May 24, 2017

Fowler wanted an adventure and to be alone with nature. She thought about climbing in the Andes Mountains, but then reality brought her to seek something closer to home. Fowler bought a portable, inflatable kayak that she could put into a backpack to explore the canals of Birmingham. The author desc......more

Goodreads review by M. on August 24, 2020

I really don't know what to say, I knew it would hit and it did. It reads like life itself, and I'm grateful to Alys Fowler for sharing it with me.......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on March 10, 2018

Liquid gold ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Rush hour, tube, Alys Fowler, Hidden Nature, oasis, fed my soul beautifully X......more

Goodreads review by Rosamund on March 20, 2018

Alys Fowler writes beautifully about nature, particularly the minutiae of small plants, such as moss and lichens, and how they survive. Her writing is clear and precise as she gets across scientific concepts. This, however, is the strongest part of a book that strives to do a lot more. Fowler sets o......more

Goodreads review by Penelope on March 27, 2017

"The best maps are not published, are not accurate or even sensible, but are the maps we make ourselves about our cities, our kith and kin. These maps are made up of private details that allow us to navigate our past as much as our future terrain" - Alys Fowler This is a book that I completely and ut......more

Quotes

"I felt as if I'd paddled into a new country." The gardening author and Guardian columnist with a distinctive memoir in which she forsakes her garden and takes to paddling Birmingham's little-used canal network in an inflatable kayak. The time and space she allows herself for nature observation--kingfishers, waterlilies, pikes, freshwater mussels and blackberries are all beautifully reflected on--is mirrored by her exploration of her internal self, particularly in the light of leaving her marriage and coming out as gay. An enchanting book which somehow manages to be both gutsy and delightfully soothing. The Bookseller

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