A William Condry Reader

‘As time passes I become ever more convinced that it is in the wild places that we have the best hope of finding such little sanity as survives in the world.’ So wrote William Condry, the pre-eminent writer on the natural history of Wales, whose Country Diary appeared in The Guardian for over forty years and whose influence on the present generation of nature writers continues to be felt. One of those is Jim Perrin, and this volume is his selection of some of William Condry’s best published work, reminding us of the attentiveness, appreciation and concern for the land which underpinned so much of Condry’s work in the field, its focus local and its perspective universal. A modest and affable man, he was, as Perrin concludes in his illuminating introduction, one of the twentieth-century masters of nature writing.

Jim Perrin is a writer, broadcaster and rock climber. As a writer he has made regular contributions to a number of newspapers and climbing magazines. As a climber he has developed many new routes, and made solo and free ascents of great difficulty. Among his books are River Map (Gomer Press, 2001) and Snowdon: The Story of a Welsh Mountain (Gomer, 2012). He has appeared at many festivals and is the recipient of a number of awards e.g. Boardman Tasker Prize, Wales Tourist Board Wales in Print Award 2002, VisitAmerica Travel Writer of the Year, 2000.