UNDER THE ROCK: Stories Carved From the Land
By: Benjamin Myers
**Shortlisted for the Portico Prize 2019**
The astonishing new work of non-fiction from the prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing.
Under the Rock is about badgers, balsam, history, nettles, mythology, moorlands, mosses, poetry, bats, wild swimming, slugs, recession, floods, logging, peacocks, community, apples, asbestos, quarries, geology, industrial music, owls, stone walls, farming, anxiety, relocation, the North, woodpiles, folklore, landslides, ruins, terriers, woodlands, ravens, dales, valleys, walking, animal skulls, trespassing, crows, factories, maps, rain – lots of rain – and a great big rock.
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‘Extraordinary, elemental … never less than compelling: this is a wild, dark grimoire of a book’ – TLS
‘Exceptionally engaging … beguiling … this is a startling, unclassifiable book’ – Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman
‘Compelling … admirable and engrossing. Myers writes of the rain with a poet’s eye worthy of Hughes’ – Erica Wagner, New Statesman
‘A bone-tingling book’ – Richard Benson, author of The Valley and The Farm
‘A truly elemental read from which I emerged subtly changed… It has all the makings of a classic’ – Miriam Darlington, author of Otter Country and Owl Sense
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Extraordinary, elemental . . . never less than compelling: this is a wild, dark grimoire of a book
- TLS -
A bone-tingling book
- Richard Benson -
Perfectly poised and seductive, luminous . . . a truly elemental read from which I emerged subtly changed. Benjamin Myers is a writer of exceptional talent and originality … it has all the makings of a classic
- Miriam Darlington -
Place-writing at its most supple: both deeply considered, and deeply felt
- Melissa Harrison -
Richly layered, densely and elegantly structured, discursive, elegiac and beautiful . . . a stunning exploration of place, mind and myth
- Jenn Ashworth