Original price was: £12.99.£10.99Current price is: £10.99.
What surprises are waiting to be discovered on your doorstep?
After travelling the whole world, can exploring a single map ever be enough?
Adventurer Alastair Humphreys spends a year investigating the small map around his own home.
Can this unassuming landscape, marked by the glow of city lights and the hum of busy roads, satisfy his wanderlust? Could a single map provide a lifetime of exploration?
He discovers more about the natural world than in all his years in remote environments. And he wakes up to the terrible state of British nature, land use, and freedom to roam the countryside. This is an ode to slowing down and the meaningful experience of truly getting to know your neighbourhood.
Local is a celebration of curiosity, time spent outdoors, and a rallying cry to protect the wild places on our doorstep. It is a reminder for all of us that nature and wildness are closer than we think.
Explore the world… On your local map.
*(I do feel I should offer a warning to fans of my other books, eg Microadventures, that this book is quite different – it’s more nature-based, and more activist in its messaging. If this sounds like it might make you cross, then it might not be the book for you. Sorry!)*
Click here to order the book if you live outside the UK.
Click here to read the book on Kindle.
Click here to listen to the audiobook.
Description
‘Alastair Humphreys shows us that space is deep as well as wide, and that one need travel only a few hundred yards to become an explorer of the undiscovered country of the nearby. This agile, wryly funny and wise book is dedicated to — as the Australian poet Les Murray once put it — being “only interested in everything”.’ – Robert MacFarlane
‘This looks wonderful. Localism isn’t better economically. It often isn’t more sustainable. But it is important because care and love can really only be local. Localism is about noticing the things and people you can actually affect.’ – Henry Dimbleby
‘The consummate roamer: big of heart, curious of mind, light of step’ – Amy-Jane Beer
- For Kindle, click here.
- For the audiobook, click here.
- For paperback orders out of the UK, click here.
Escape into the overlooked adventures and insights from one man’s year of deeply exploring a 20km map of suburban England.
What surprises might you uncover in your own neighborhood if you set aside assumptions and paid closer attention? After two decades of grand expeditions spanning the globe, Adventurer Alastair Humphreys embarked on a project to get to know his uninspiring corner of England through undertaking weekly microadventures within one local map.
Armed with curiosity, his camera and a selection of apps, Alastair set out to traverse the area on foot and by bike, noticing and researching everything he encountered. From winter frosts to summer meadows, ancient woodlands to housing estates, farmers’ fields to fly-tipped rubbish, Alastair embraced his local map in meticulous square kilometre segments.
What emerged is a chronicle brimming with humour, history, emotion and insight. A story about slowing down and opening your eyes to the wonders and issues in plain sight on your own doorstep. A reminder that you don’t need to burn carbon travelling the world to find connection, perspective and inspiration. You just need to look closer to home.
Beautifully illustrated with Alastair’s photographs, Local reveals afresh the abundant nature, forgotten tales and present-day stories hidden within the complex map of every community. It will inspire you to fall in love with your own neighbourhood, to forge new routes and purpose, and to undertake microadventures across the landscapes within your daily orbit.
*(I do feel I should offer a warning to fans of my other books, eg Microadventures, that this book is quite different – it’s more nature-based, and more activist in its messaging. If this sounds like it might make you cross, then it might not be the book for you. Sorry!)*
Additional information
| Weight | .406 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 21 × 13.5 × 2.4 cm |
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