A String of Pearls

**Short-listed for the Lakeland Book of the Year 2022 and the Latitude Press award for Illustration and Presentation**

The Lake District’s dramatic fells, crashing waterfalls and glorious still waters have inspired writers for centuries.

Famous poets such as Wordsworth and Simon Armitage, bestselling authors such as Ian McEwan and Bill Bryson, and modern thriller writers such as Val McDermid, have all drawn on the setting.

In this lavishly illustrated anthology, Margaret Wilson has selected the best Lake District literary extracts, each paired with a specially commissioned, stunning local landscape from photographer Helen Shaw.

REVIEWS

Lancashire Post
With each gem in this gorgeous collection linking up to a string of pearls and a mesmerising photographic match, this breathtaking book is guaranteed to be a jewel in your own home library.

Lancashire Life
There are certain names you’d expect to feature, and editor Margaret Wilson doesn’t disappoint: Wordsworth, Potter, Wainwright and Bragg are all among the 50+ featured authors. But she has also selected some less obvious writers including Ian McEwan, Charles Dickens and Val McDermid. Extracts from their works are illustrated by stunning photography from Bowland-based photographer Helen Shaw. The result is a captivating anthology which reveals the inspiration generations of writers have drawn from the region’s fells, tarns, valleys and farms.

Westmoreland Gazette
A tribute to the beauty of a countryside landscape that has inspired authors for generations.

Availability:

Illustrations:
60 Colour photographs

Pages:
128

Published:
Apr 22, 2021

ISBN:
9781913159245

About the Author:

Helen Shaw lives in the North Pennines on a remote hillside south of Garrigill, Cumbria.

Her photographs have featured in The Times, Manchester Evening News, This England,
Cumbria Life, Westmoreland Gazette, The Scots magazine, Northern Life, and countless
other magazines and newspapers all across northern England. Her photographic
books have earned her a strong following: The Forest of Bowland, Land’s End to John
O’Groats, The Pennines, String of Pearls (Lake District).The North Pennines is her fifth book of landscape photography and her first one focussing entirely on her home of the North Pennines.

A keen walker and lover of wild and lonely places, she is married to Bob Shelmerdine
who shares her passion for the outdoors.

Margaret Wilson lives in Leebotwood near Church Stretton. After working in Paris, Madrid and London as a business translator she moved, with her husband and son, to Shropshire. Here, she enjoys walking in the hills, exploring the towns and villages and learning about the county’s folklore. She works as a literary editor and proof-reader.  Her hobbies include gardening, making theatrical costumes and travel.