Book description
In the 1960s Geoffrey Grigson travelled around England writing the
story of the secret landscape that is all around us, if only we take
the time to look and see. The result is a book that will take you on
an imaginative journey, revealing hidden stories, unexpected places
and strange phenomena.
From green men, ice-scratches, cross-legged knights and weathercocks
to rainbows, clouds and stars; from place-names and poets to mazes,
dene-holes and sham ruins, via avenues, dewponds and village greens,
The Shell Country Alphabet will help you discover the world
that remains, just off the motorway.
'Geoffrey Grigson resurrected the minor, the provincial and
the parochial ... [he was] an erudite and unrivalled topographer ...
ardent in promoting informed awareness of the distinctiveness of
place' Toby Barnard
'An anthologist of genius' P. J. Kavanagh
Geoffrey Grigson, poet and writer, was born in Cornwall in 1905.
He first came to prominence in the 1930s as a poet, then as editor
from 1933 of New Verse. Later in life he was a noted critic, reviewer,
and compiler of acclaimed anthologies. He published 13 books of
poetry, and wrote on a wide variety of subjects including art, travel,
the English countryside, and botany. He died in 1985.
Sophie Grigson is the daughter of Jane and Geoffrey Grigson and an
acclaimed cookery writer and presenter. She received the Guild of Food
Writers' Cookery Journalist Award in 2001 and is the author of over 16
cookery books.
