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Bothy
- Author
- Kat Hill
- Narrator
- Catrin Walker-Booth
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers
- Publish Date
- 9 May 2024
- Run Time
- 9 hours 57 minutes
- Format
- x-book®
- Genre
- Nature and the natural world: general interest, Social geography, Historical geography, Walking, hiking, trekking, Camping, Conservation of the environment, The countryside, country life: general interest
- Rating
- 2.3 (3 reviews)
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What to expect
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE
A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘The bothy embrace is addictive’ ADAM NICOLSON
'Will have you reaching for your boots’ CAL FLYN
……………………………………………………………..
A bothy is a remote hut in the wilderness that you can’t reserve, with no electricity, mod-cons or running water. The doors are always unlocked, you just need to step inside.
From the rugged cliffs at the northern tip of Scotland to the fairy-tale valleys of Wales, historian Kat Hill tours us across the UK exploring the history of these wild shelters and her fellow wanderers – past and present.
Bothy is a stirring, beautiful book for anyone who longs to run away to the wilds
……………………………………………………………..
‘A thoughtful exploration of what these remote outposts mean to their users’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘A beguiling combination of travel writing, nature writing, social history and personal reflection’ DAILY MAIL
Critics Review
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'A thoughtful exploration of what these remote outposts mean to their users, drawing on archived visitor books as well as describing the bothies’ redemptive role in her own life'
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Financial Times
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'The result is a thoughtful and thought-provoking, a beguiling combination of travel writing, nature writing, social history and personal reflection'
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Daily Mail
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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'Kat Hill thoughtfully couples history with memoir; these personal touches endear the reader to a life of bothy-dwelling. This is a warm, erudite work that neatly explores our relationship with wild landscapes and carefully considers our place within them'
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New Stateman
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'An intelligent and thoughtful book that will have you reaching for your boots. Hill offers learned and considered reflections on the consolations of retreat, simple living, of finding even temporary shelter when all outside is tempest. It is also a meditation on change: climate change, emotional growth, and the unquenchable nostalgia for a past slipping ever further from view’
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Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment
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‘Marvellous… It would be difficult to think of a subtler or more careful exploration of the wrinkles of modern life and modern nature, with all its traps, delights, delusions and possibilities.
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Adam Nicolson, author of Life Between the Tides
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‘A questing, atmospheric collection of meditations of the essential nature of bothy life. A book steeped in dubbin, wood smoke, lanolin, and love of wild places, Kat Hill's hymn to the humble highland hut will delight and inform armchair travellers, weekend walkers, and veteran rough-stuffers alike’
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Dan Richards, co-author of Holloway
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‘You can't imagine just how much I loved the book… the universality underneath the particularity is going to strike a chord with so many readers’
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Sophie Howarth, author of Looking at Trees and co-founder of The School of Life
User Reviews
Book 2.3
Narration 2.7
-
3.0 3.0
I love a book about walking in the UK's hills, lakes and mountains and was really looking forward to this as it was focusing on Bothys mainly in Scotland. What could be better than hearing the adventures of someone walking in the Highlands and staying in Bothys. It disappointed. It's not that there aren't interesting anecdotes but the fact that the author has an Academic background professionally spoils the flow. There's far too much cross referencing to other authors books or poems and including quotes from them. In her chapter about Cape Wrath we're all of a sudden whisked off to the Mississippi delta. It just ruins the flow. Wild Winter by John Burns is a much more interesting listen if Scottish mountains, wildlife and bothys are your thing. Absolutely love that.
Jon 2026-07-27 -
1.0 1.0
It didn't like this at all. Dull, self indulgent and pretentious. I struggled to the end but I found the constant quoting of poets and philosophers, the tedious references to the author's self pitying love life and the general repetition soon become irritating. Another review I read referred to the narrator's "sprightly girl guide tone" which is quite an accurate description. It became very grating.
Celador66 2026-02-15
Details
- Author
- Kat Hill
- Narrator
- Catrin Walker-Booth
- Duration
- 9 hours 57 minutes
- Release Date
- 9 May 2024
- ISBN
- 9780008619053
- Format
- x-book®
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers
- Genre
- Nature and the natural world: general interest, Social geography, Historical geography, Walking, hiking, trekking, Camping, Conservation of the environment, The countryside, country life: general interest
- Rating
- 2.3(3 reviews)
- Narration
- 2.7(3 reviews)
Synopsis
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘The bothy embrace is addictive’ ADAM NICOLSON 'Will have you reaching for your boots’ CAL FLYN …………………………………………………………….. A bothy is a remote hut in the wilderness that you can’t reserve, with no electricity, mod-cons or running water. The doors are always unlocked, you just need to step inside. From the rugged cliffs at the northern tip of Scotland to the fairy-tale valleys of Wales, historian Kat Hill tours us across the UK exploring the history of these wild shelters and her fellow wanderers – past and present. Bothy is a stirring, beautiful book for anyone who longs to run away to the wilds …………………………………………………………….. ‘A thoughtful exploration of what these remote outposts mean to their users’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘A beguiling combination of travel writing, nature writing, social history and personal reflection’ DAILY MAIL
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