Next To Me, A Robin

From the Woods and Fields of Dartington, Devon

When Ros Brady first walks into the sun and rain of a Devon summer and turns up a road to Higher Close Hill, the writer and the half-wild, half-farmed landscape that lies along the River Dart, are joined in an experience close to nature that will haunt her forever.

These are her writings pencilled outdoors on scraps of paper. They lead the reader, young or old, on her trail - through ash copses in storm, through rain, hail and sun, among the birds, the wild animals and along the river's banks.

The title of this book pays tribute to the ornithologist  David Lack whose seminal study 'Life of the Robin' was written and researched on the thousand acre rural estate of Dartington Hall.

The author takes you by the hand and steals you away to a quiet place and an encounter with a visionary world.

'Ros Brady moves slowly through the natural world and observes closely, feels deeply and thinks originally: what could be more important? She shares her relationship with this world through her vivid writing with its unusual metaphors... The reader looks, learns and experiences life in a new way...'

Kay Dunbar

Director of 'Ways With Words' Literature Festivals