Caught by the River

How Nan Shepherd remade my vision of the Cairngorms

28th December 2013

Nan-Shepherd-imageImage via The Dabbler

Now on the iPlayer.

From Robert Macfarlane:

I’ve spent the last few months working on a programme for Radio 4 about the Cairngorms, Nan Shepherd, and her masterpiece The Living Mountain. We’re finalising the mix today. It’s been a joy to work on. Lots of field-recordings from two extraordinary days up on the summits of the Cairngorms in late September. An ultra-minimalist score, based on the sounds of the plateau, commissioned from the Scottish composer and musician Graham Riach. And some inspired editing from the producer, Victoria McArthur, to feather Nan’s own voice in with my own, and with the ‘voice’ of the mountains themselves. It’s due to broadcast at 4pm on Monday 30th December: there’s a slightly scrappy advance programme page here . On Saturday 28th December there’ll be a piece by me about the making of the programme in the Guardian Review, together with a soundscape-and-slideshow on the site.