A lovely collection of works relating to nature in winter months, spanning many different authors and countries. There is no real organisation into themes but that makes it a lovely book to pick up and open at random through the winter months, all the wintry topics adding to a sense of cosiness for readers at home. This is a more varied range of authors than many of this type of compendium, some of them more enjoyable than others for me, but it’s an interesting selection.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

‘’At the winter solstice the clouds were heavy, chalk grey, the air still with snow that never seemed to fall. Without the generous canopy and riotous undergrowth of summer, my tiny home felt exposed. No leaves on the hawthorn hedge to offer protection from the wind, or dispel curious glances; in daylight, all my movements could be seen, and in the darkness any light cast from my van window betrayed my presence in the woods. Constellations turned above the thin roof and the long nights and short days sped past.’’

Instead of a boring introduction from yours truly, read the following extract by Nancy Campbell. It is heartbreakingly beautiful.

‘’Candles were lit in the sconces. In this soft light, kindness and kinship hovered at the corners of the rooms as we spoke of books we loved in various languages, recommended other writers in and out of translation, read shyly from the first drafts of poems, and somehow, at some point, I stopped seeing time as something urgently demarcated by the lines in my diary, and began to feel the space open up between them.’’

A haunting mixture of Fiction and Non-Fiction. It is a book that breathes and lives Winter in all its dark, harsh, poetically sad glory. A treasure for the long evenings when time stands still in the finest way possible. In its pages, you will meet Anne Frank, Charles Darwin, Kenneth Grahame, Walt Whitman, Vincent Van Gogh, Charlotte Bronte, to name a few.

the wind

24 December 1943

‘’Whenever someone comes in from outside, with the wind in their clothes and the cold on their cheeks, I feel like burying my head under the blanket to keep from thinking. ‘When will we be allowed to breathe fresh air again?’’

Anne Frank

A snow mountain must be kept safe at all costs in Kyoto and it is simply extraordinary to think that such a vivid, marvellous text was written during the 11th century. Daisy Hildyard pays homage to the holly, the most beautiful symbol of winter, and Damian Le Bas writes about mistletoe, Cornwall and the New Travellers while Virginia Woolf describes London during winter in a haunting passage during one of the most important scenes in Orlando.

‘’It was an evening of astonishing beauty. As the sun sank, all the domes, spires, turrets, and pinnacles of London rose in inky blackness against the furious red sunset clouds. Here was the fretted cross at Charing; there like a grove of trees stripped of all leaves save a knob at the end were the heads on the pikes at Temple Bar.’’

Virginia Woolf

In Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov’s extract from The Kolyma Tales, a prisoner in a gulag in the Arctic region outsmarts a brutish guard and Marchelle Farrell writes a haunting piece about Yule and exhaustion.

‘’I am tired. What a dream it would be to rest until the first signs of spring. I take my cue from the garden, die back where I can, keep growing where I must. I love my dreams of the garden – it grows within the now, shows itself even when I am not in it. There is such comfort in being so rooted. I wonder if the garden dreams now of me.’’

Marchelle Farrell

Vincent Van Gogh takes an evening walk across the heath, during a storm and Dorothy Pilley writes about the treacherous mountains of Spain and resilient guides. Tim Dee’s words paint a beautiful image of the moor during dusk, while Charlotte Du Cann transports from the scorching heat of Greece to the northern winter through a profound encounter with a figure from times unknown.

‘’Dusk on the winter solstice: the shortest day and longest night of the year. I was cold and alone on a track on the Somerset Levels, looking towards the dying light in the west. Moving across the sky in front of me, like the breath of the earth, were thousands of birds – starlings arriving to roost, to put away their day, and so too, on this day, the year.’’

Tim Dee

Elizabeth – Jane Burnett narrates a meteor shower in Devon in a mesmerizing voice and Sarah Thomas brings this beautiful collection to an end with her hymn to cold nights in the Arctic.

‘’I stand out in the wide night. An owl hoots from further down the field. The grey cloud moves under the moon like smoke from a fire. When it clears, the brilliance is intense. It is like nothing else. As I gaze up, I see three stars in a row on a diagonal under it: Orion’s Belt. I wonder if I’m seeing any planets.’’

Elizabeth – Jane Burnett

I could have underlined every page of this gem. Nancy Campbell is an outstanding writer and a phenomenal editor. This volume must find a place in your collection.

‘’The heartbeat slows, the chimney smokes, the stars fall. The enchanted month in the castle came to a close, and I tidied my desk and climbed the library ladder to return books to their places on the shelves. As I gathered up my sheaf of papers, I looked forward to returning home. The remaining nights of winter might be dark and cold and damp, but now I was listening for the call of the blackbird. I awaited the first snowdrops, with hope.’’

Nancy Campbell

Many thanks to Elliot & Thompson and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love winter--the cold and the dark bring me a sense of peace and calm. I look forward to the season all year, so when I saw this book I did not hesitate. I thought it would be a book for me and I was right. From the wonderful introduction by Nancy Campbell through each of the writing selections with winter at their heart, this book plunked me right down in my favorite time of year. I was sorry to see it end.

There are many different authors and styles collected here. Everyone will have their favorites. I read the book straight through, but it would also be an excellent book to keep out and dip into whenever you feel like a dose of winter. Whether you're sipping cold beverages in the heat or have your hands wrapped around a mug of something hot by the fire, this book has something for everyone.

This delightful collection of essays about the natural world during the season of sleep will entertain and enrich readers, showing them the beauty of what is often thought of as the bleakest time of year

*Thank you NetGalley and Elliott & Thompson for an ARC of this book.

Upon starting to read this book I immediately fell in love with the author’s telling of her own story, of her stay in the castle while at the same time allowing for a stream of consciousness to both envelop her and the reader. She draws on experiences and pieces of literature that draw me in. The description of seasons being a cultural construct and as such being different from culture to culture is a highly interesting topic. I could have read an entire book just on this topic. However, the great introduction may be why I was a bit disappointed with the book in general as I was missing the voice of Nancy Campbell throughout.

After the introduction the book immediately jumps to a section of Anne Frank’s diary without introducing this fundamental piece of literature at all. After dropping a rather disconnected piece by Anne Frank, there is a seamless, not explained jump to Sei Shōnagon. This is how the book progresses and quite frankly, it appears lazy and incomplete. Sure, it is an anthology, but the editor of the book could have made an effort to talk a bit more about the chosen works especially as some of them are randomly cut off or are only a part of a bigger work of literature.
Furthermore, it would have been nice to learn more about the period in which the pieces were written. What was the political situation like and more importantly maybe, tell the reader more about the geography and what winters are like in the area in which the story is set.

Some of the selected works have enjoyed greatly even though some context would have been good. Others, like for instance “Snow Mountains Everywhere” did not spark my interest very much. In some instances, I was also not sure why the piece of fiction was chosen as the only real allusion to winter was a side note in order to set the scene. The winter season, however, seems to have little impact on the story per se.

Nature Tales for Winter Nights is a fascinating compendium of writing covering the words of continents and countries and different periods in time.

Exploring our sensory responses to the changing of the seasons into shorter days and darker nights and the seasonal changes that come with it through deep snow, crisp days, the gloom of fog and the cold that dig deeps

The selection of tales cover a range of authors - some well known and others less so - not the obvious Dickensian snapshots of winters past

There is a pervading sense of melancholy and the desire to hibernate away from the darkness and unknown within some of the tales but others enlighten us with a sense of cleansing and approach of renewal.

This is a read for winter evenings - to be read in order or to just dip into; many of the stories yield a poetic stance and through this the season overtakes us .

A curious selection and probably not what you might expect but certainly interesting and varied

I really enjoyed this collection of tales in nature, it was a relaxing read that each essay had me wanting to read more. I loved that the topics were different and all around interesting. I appreciated that it wasn't just Winter and enjoying learning about new things.

This is such a great idea for a short story collection. I really enjoyed the introduction and the stories have clearly been picked carefully.

As with any anthology, some I like more than others, but overall it's a great collection to have.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC