Nan Shepherd in Space: Writing the Earth and Cosmos in The Living Mountain

When Nan Shepherd wrote The Living Mountain, she was poised between two moments in earth and human history. Her geological imagination was shaped by scientific discoveries into the deep age of the earth and the forces that shaped mountains, carved valleys and brought living species into being. But she was also writing on the cusp of a new age: one in which human activity would leave traces on this seemingly eternal landscape and begin to disrupt wider global natural systems, from the hydrological system to the carbon cycle. In this talk, I'll explore Shepherd 's temporal and planetary imagination - from the marks mountain industries were leaving on the Cairngorms, to the attempt to imagine the earth and cosmos as one integrated, living whole.

Dr Samantha Walton is Reader in Modern Literature at Bath Spa University, where her research focuses on links between nature and mental health, and the environmental humanities. Her latest books are The Living World: Nan Shepherd and Environmental Thought (2020) and Everybody Needs Beauty: In Search of the Nature Cure (2021)

Main Image: Eilis Garvey