At the Loch of the Green Corrie

"In the book he takes his two friends on this search for a loch. Just before Norman MacCaig died, he told Greig he should go and see this loch and do some fishing there. Greig didn’t realise that was the last time he was going to see MacCaig. So he takes these two pals, two brothers, on a search to find the Loch of the Green Corrie, although it turns out it’s not quite called that. And in doing so he tells us about the landscape he’s walking through, and again, here’s a writer who discusses entanglement and interconnectedness with the weather, with geology, with nature. And he talks with great passion about the losses he sees in it— and at first it quite shocks him, this depopulated landscape, which he explains is ruined by overgrazing, by human clearances. But then he falls back in love with it, and says, no: this is the wild bleak landscape we should all be looking for, this extreme and beautiful human landscape. And he understands what Norman MacCaig was all about. This brings us full circle, back to Nan Shepherd. Because he says to his pals, Look, you’ve got to read The Living Mountain . Greig too writes about the colour and the texture—of the rock, of the vegetation, of the water. He talks about the colour and texture of the light. That’s one of the most astonishing things about the Highlands: the light we are blessed with up here, even on the wildest, wickedest days. So yes, this book brings us full circle. It’s a beautiful read, and all about that relationship between people and place. In fact, they are all beautifully accessible books: books that will grab you and lead you by the heart into the living beating heart of the Highlands. Each in their own way tells us a little bit more about the Highlands and the people of the Highlands, too."