What is it about?
British nature writing is a very popular genre. The article works with two texts, Roger Deakin´s Waterlog and Hugh Thomson´s The Green Road into the Trees, to show how the physical experience of a landscape helps redefine human identity. Slow movement through a local landscape or immersion in it leads not only to transcendental reconnection and consideration of ecological ethics but also helps to undermine the human-natural dichotomy. It is a chapter in the book titled "Consolations of Nature: Human-Nature Connections in Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Literature," published by Brill.
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Why is it important?
The article stresses the contribution of nature writing to human reconsideration of where they belong, who they are and how they can relate to their environment.
Perspectives
Writing this article reflects my own love of walking and swimming in the open nature. It was a great pleasure to analyse texts that deal with my favourite pastime activity. The authors´ love of the local landscape made this work very close to my heart. The text is part of an excellent book titled "Consolations of Nature." It is an insightful and enriching publication produced by extremely gifted and devoted researchers, and, above all, great people.
Olga Roebuck
Univerzita Pardubice
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This page is a summary of: More Than Backpacks and Swims: British Nature Writing and the Consolatory Role of Nature, December 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004744110_009.
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