Latitudes
Encounters with a Changing Planet
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Barbican Press
Publishing:25th Mar '25
£12.99
This title is due to be published on 25th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This thought-provoking exploration reveals the author's deep connection to nature and the urgent realities of climate change in Latitudes.
In Latitudes, the author shares a profound and evocative exploration of nature through the lens of personal experience. With thirty years spent in some of the world's most remote and wild places, the narrative weaves together memoir, journal, and travelogue elements, taking readers on a journey across diverse landscapes, from the icy expanses of the Antarctic and Arctic to the arid savannahs and deserts of Africa. The text invites readers to reflect on the beauty of these environments, while also confronting the pressing realities of climate change and ecological loss.
The book serves as a poignant reminder of the delicate balance between humanity and the natural world. It challenges readers to consider their own relationship with the planet, highlighting the tension between knowledge and instinct, intellect and emotion. Through shimmering prose, the author captures the essence of remote places, allowing us to glimpse what the Earth was like before human intervention and what it may become in the future.
Latitudes ultimately urges us to listen to the living world around us. It emphasizes the importance of being attuned to nature's voice and understanding our role within it. By sharing these rich, textured observations, the author not only paints a vivid portrait of the natural world but also inspires a deeper connection to the environment and a greater awareness of our impact on it.
"In this meditative essay collection, McNeil (Fire on the Mountain) draws from decades of travel to the world's most remote places to reflect on the beauty and terror of wild landscapes that are under ecological threat. Whether she's recounting her time as a writer-in-residence on an Antarctic research station, an observer aboard a research vessel off the coast of Greenland, or a trainee in an African safari guide program, McNeil captures nature in evocative and dexterous prose... McNeil's deeply felt observations offer a transporting, thought-provoking lens on nature. It's captivating stuff." —Publishers Weekly
"Meditative and sumptuous,Latitudes is Jean McNeil's brooding memoir covering travels to remote landscapes; it ruminates on the unsettling impacts of climate change. McNeil is an inquisitive, restless traveler who crafts beautiful and profound passages about her journeys to unusual places. Depicting the splendor of diverse landscapes around the globe, Latitudes is a rich, textured portrait of the natural world and a plaintive reflection on the destruction of climate change." — Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
"McNeil's lifetime of exploratory journeys have taken her into landscapes that vanishingly few of us will ever see. In shimmering prose, and with her fiercely ethical and sharp eye, McNeil conjures maps of lands known and unknown. Latitudes is a book of great beauty." — Margie Orford, author of The Eye of the Beholder
"Full of lived experience, this book ponders the question of our own animal relationship with the planet, between what we know and what we feel, between mind and body, instinct and intellect."—Julia Bell, author of Massive and Hymnal
ISBN: 9781909954113
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
240 pages