Deep Country: Five Years In The Welsh Hills (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
OK, full disclosure: I know the author of this book, albeit not very well, and like him. Neil used to live in a cottage along the valley and up the hill from us. It’s pretty remote: until recently it had no neighbours within a couple of miles, and has no mains water, gas, electricity or phone. This book tells about the five years he spent there, how the solitude affected him, and (mainly) about the natural world he immersed himself in and the birds and animals he saw. I’d say the book is a good 70% nature journal, and I imagine many readers will be frustrated that he doesn’t say more about the experience of the house itself or the adjustment to the isolation and lack of modern comforts. But to Neil, that’s the point: that by spending time alone, he didn’t ‘find himself’ – he lost himself.It’s a good read. It’s beautifully written and very evocative of place. That said, I do feel that there is an element of poetic licence in how the isolation of the place is described. This isn’t uncommon – I’ve read another book by a relatively near neighbour which overstates the rurality of the area to an almost comical degree. Maybe there’s a degree of fictionalising in even the most ‘real life’ accounts. Perhaps my view is skewed by living in the area (and that’s likely – lots of people comment on how ‘out of the way’ we are, and Neil’s old place is further out than us) but the solitude Neil describes – not seeing another person for weeks – had to have been self imposed rather than being enforced by the nature of his home. Even out here in the sticks, there would have been a dozen or more houses within a couple of miles’ walk, had he felt so inclined. There is something oddly disconnecting about reading a description of a place you know well, and simultaneously recognising the familiarity while thinking, ‘Well, that’s not *quite* true…’. But these are details, I suppose – it’s still a very insightful book about solitude and self sufficiency – not just practical self-sufficency, but intellectual and emotional self-sufficiency. I heard Neil Ansell discuss his book at Dartington's Ways with Words. What struck me about him was his absolute genuineness. This was not an experience undertaken to write a book, marred by forced comedy or earnestness or excessive enthusiasm. Nor is it a project as such. I liked his observations on birds and animals, compressed from five years experience. It is reminiscent of J A Baker's The Peregrine.
What do You think about Deep Country: Five Years In The Welsh Hills (2011)?
Beautifully written, idyllic, calming. Wish I was there myself.
—KadiDawn
