'Like many a Highland glen, the Fathan Ghlinne should be wooded but isn't. But I have sat long and often and listened to the ancient river speech, to the windsong of three birches and a rowan, the rowan above a meeting of waterfalls which should be a portentous place. And the word on the wind and in the speech of the river is that the trees and wolves and the people will be back.'
Thus Jim Crumley concludes this remarkable book of nature writing. The setting is largely Highland Perthshire (there are startling asides to Mull and Alaska), the author's home for several years, and where, having 'chased a rainbow' that faded early he stayed on and put down a root that nourished his nature writer's instincts.
Something Out There is Jim Crumley's account of his quest to rediscover something of the ancient bond between man and nature. It is told in prose that is three-quarters of the way to poetry, and in the process gives the art of nature writing a bold new standard bearer for the 21st century.
Jim Crumley is a nature writer with almost 20 books to his name, mostly on the landscape and wildlife of Scotland. He is renowned for his style: passionate, inspiring, visionary, sensitive, moody, majestic%85no work of his should be missed. He is also a columnist and presenter of radio programmes.
' ... presents essays of observation on the lives of osprey, eagles, falcons, swans, skylarks, and dippers, intermingled with reflections about the human relationship to nature and the author's personal life. Particularly welcome is the inclusion of original poetry and photography, the former calling to mind Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, as well as Walden. At its best Crumley's prose takes to the air in feathery descriptions of the awe that birds inspire: "So an eagle crosses a Perthshire mountainside, and she wears a green moustache and her shadow tows her along a notch above stalling speed and at the lowest known altitude above zero feet and my heart is in my mouth again". The language can also be refreshingly stoic, chiselled and hard bitten, appropriate to the northern landscape that inspires it. ...offers valuable knowledge of nature hewn out of long experience and illuminating moments of clear seeing and deep feeling'. ISLE (Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment), journal of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment in the USA
'This author is never less alone than when by himself. Home may be a remote cottage in Glendochart, but the world beyond its windows teems with life. Everything that moves, be it eagle, buzzard, raven or redwing, even the fieldmouse in his dyke, is observed, mulled over and recorded. That sounds fairly clinical. Crumley's prose is anything but and frequently the lyrical quality and poetical imagery is profoundly moving. He has the ability to take the reader with him on his travels, to make us see with his eyes, listen with his sharp ears, share his quest for answers. Why does the eagle behave that way, or the salmon that? How does the osprey catch fish in a snowstorm? ... Read his account of the northern lights and it won't matter if you never see them. His word pictures of red, dervish dancers, of light pouring in cataracts of green, yellow and white, are vivid enough. His world is one where silence is important, an enquiring mind even more so. A beautifully produced book which includes both poetry and black and white photographs. Not for nothing has Jim Crumley been called the best nature writer in Britain'. Leopard Magazine.
'Write the truest sentence that you know' is how Jim Crumley starts this evocative and intriguing book. A quote and piece of advice taken from Ernest Hemingway. I discovered Something Out There to be an enthralling read and a book that 'rang home' so well with myself that I didn't want to put it down. I felt so much a part of each sentence as the work unfolded and it mirrored my own feelings as an illustrator of the integrity of the natural world. Crumley has mastered the feeling of being out in the midst of nature in all of her glory and her starkness. It is an emphatic interpretation of the natural world and man's place in it by an enthused naturalist with a flowing poetic prose style and who is inspiring, sensitive and passionate in his observation and creative approach. It is mostly set in the author's home of Highland Perthshire, but also roams to Mull and Alaska. A quite beautiful piece on the dipper in a Perthshire glen sums up Crumley's wonderful observational skills that make his work so incredibly readable and alive: 'the more you watch, the more you wonder, the more whys you invent so that you watch more intently than ever'. Jim Crumley has achieved a tremendous sense of the power of nature and man's place and bond with it; something only possible from one who has deep connections with and appreciation of the wild places'. Journal and News, John Muir Trust
'This is a celebration of the natural world as seen through the eyes, ears and heart of a skilled writer. He can describe the flight of the skylark in exquisite language and point out that the call of the cuckoo can sometimes sound like jazz. He can write pages on the colour of an egg or the scent of pine trees, or the life to be found in a drystane dyke and not one word will be dull or misplaced. Jim Crumley now has almost 20 books to his credit and, in my opinion, Something out There is his best.' The Scots Magazine.
'Jim Crumley, like all the best nature writers, combines his extensive knowledge with respect and awe for the natural world. He brings a soft-voiced poetry to his observations of nature's daily dramas, and the sort of imagination that can cast itself inside the egg of a dipper or the mind of a hunting hawk'.The Herald.
