The moor: lives landscape literature (2014)

The Moor. Just the thought of it can bring up feelings of bleakness, isolation and forbidding places. An Britain has it's fair share of moorland too, from the windswept southern moors in Cornwall and Devon to the harsh and uncompromising northern moors of Yorkshire and Lancashire.

And yet these places have supported industries and livelihoods for hundreds of years and inspired some of most well known literature as well as providing perfect environment for some of the unique flora and fauna perfectly adapted to these places.

In this book, Atkins walks these moors to uncover their past events and the people that inhabited them, as well as absorb their stark beauty. He visits Dartmoor prison in the centre of Dartmoor, which presents any prisoner intending on escaping with the toughest of journeys. He joins shoots on the moors, and visits those that still have legends that haunt the location.

Well worth reading, Atkins has given us a fascinating account of some of the the harshest environments that this country has, and has brought the history of them alive. 3.5 stars overall. ( )