The last time I saw Jim Perrin he was standing alone in the gardens of Bangor Crematorium in North Wales. Lost in quiet contemplation I approached to offer my condolences. It was the occasion of the funeral of his partner Jacquetta who happened to be a friend of mine. He observed that it was only twelve months since Will, his beloved son had been tragically torn from him aged just 24. A harrowing 12 months by anyone's standards. Now Jim sets out in his new book West, the emotional and physical journey he has undertaken since that darkest night of the soul.
"Part memoir, part travelogue, legendary writer Jim Perrin charts a journey of loss, love and grief in the face of the deaths of his wife and son. Simply extraordinary, West is set to become a classic of its kind.
‘I am alone with my dead, and the grieving can begin. I am alone with my dead in a place of the dead, and I do not want to live. This is why I have come here – to be alone; to be in a place of the dead; to be at peace and undisturbed with my own dead.’
After the sudden, separate, deaths of his wife and son, Jim Perrin fled his native Wales for Ireland and to the furthest point of Connemara, to an ancient burial ground on an island off its westernmost peninsula. A journey embarked upon haphazardly, instinctively, led him solitary and at twilight to a remote beach strewn with human bones.
Consumed by the presence of death, he had come to a place of the dead, had felt the urge to travel West and wondered why? What was leading him to settle into this place and pass here the coming hours of dark, under the hollow gaze of ancient skulls? West is his extraordinary attempt to understand.
West tells the story of Jim Perrin's own life against the lives and deaths of his cherished wife and son, and the landscapes through which they travelled together. It is a powerful and passionate confrontation with loss, a seeking-to-understand the wilderness within, a meditation on transience, a complex, sensual and moving love-story and a celebration of the beauty and redemptive power of wild nature. In this book, Perrin has written a stunning, life-affirming evocation of the grief that can consume us all and the journey entailed in accepting and understanding devastating personal loss.Jim Perrin is one of Britain’s most highly regarded writers on travel, nature and the outdoors and in his youth was one of the country's most notable rock-climbers. He is a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Climber and The Great Outdoors. Among many other awards he has twice won the Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain literature, and was voted Scottish Columnist of the Year 2009. He has written twelve books to date, including Menlove, The Villain: A LIfe of Don Whillans, River Map, The Climbing Essays and Travels with The Flea. He is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy, an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University, and the Guardian’s Country Diarist for Wales.' (Atlantic Books).
After the sudden, separate, deaths of his wife and son, Jim Perrin fled his native Wales for Ireland and to the furthest point of Connemara, to an ancient burial ground on an island off its westernmost peninsula. A journey embarked upon haphazardly, instinctively, led him solitary and at twilight to a remote beach strewn with human bones.
Consumed by the presence of death, he had come to a place of the dead, had felt the urge to travel West and wondered why? What was leading him to settle into this place and pass here the coming hours of dark, under the hollow gaze of ancient skulls? West is his extraordinary attempt to understand.
West tells the story of Jim Perrin's own life against the lives and deaths of his cherished wife and son, and the landscapes through which they travelled together. It is a powerful and passionate confrontation with loss, a seeking-to-understand the wilderness within, a meditation on transience, a complex, sensual and moving love-story and a celebration of the beauty and redemptive power of wild nature. In this book, Perrin has written a stunning, life-affirming evocation of the grief that can consume us all and the journey entailed in accepting and understanding devastating personal loss.Jim Perrin is one of Britain’s most highly regarded writers on travel, nature and the outdoors and in his youth was one of the country's most notable rock-climbers. He is a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Climber and The Great Outdoors. Among many other awards he has twice won the Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain literature, and was voted Scottish Columnist of the Year 2009. He has written twelve books to date, including Menlove, The Villain: A LIfe of Don Whillans, River Map, The Climbing Essays and Travels with The Flea. He is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy, an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University, and the Guardian’s Country Diarist for Wales.' (Atlantic Books).
West is published by Atlantic Books and is available from 1st July 2010.
Post Title
→Jim Perrin explores the darkest continent.
Post URL
→https://national-grid-news.blogspot.com/2010/06/jim-perrin-explores-darkest-continent.html
Visit National-grid-news for Daily Updated Wedding Dresses Collection
