Common Ground cover art

Common Ground

 Preview
Free with 30-day trial
Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Common Ground

Written by: Rob Cowen
Narrated by: Rob Cowen
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹888.00

Buy Now for ₹888.00

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

ONE OF BRITAIN'S FAVOURITE NATURE BOOKS AS FEATURED ON BBC's WINTERWATCH

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2016

After moving from London to a new home in Yorkshire, and about to become a father for the first time, Rob Cowen finds himself in unfamiliar territory. Disoriented, hemmed in by winter and yearning for open space, he ventures out to a nearby edge-land: a pylon-slung tangle of wood, hedge, field, meadow and river that lies unclaimed and overlooked on the outskirts of town.

Digging deeper into this lost landscape, he begins to uncover its many layers and lives - beast, bird, insect, plant and people - in kaleidoscopic detail. As the seasons change and the birth of his child draws closer, his transformative journey into the blurry space where human and nature meet becomes increasingly profound. In bringing this edge-land to life, Cowen offers both a both a unique portrait of people and place through time and an unforgettable exploration of the common ground we share with the natural world, the past and each other.

'Bold and beautiful.' Robert Macfarlane

'Sensitive, thoughtful and poetic ... leading us into a whole new way of looking at the world' Michael Palin

'Touched by genius' John Lewis-Stempel

'Absolutely mesmerizing, utterly beautiful and engrossing' Joanne Harris

© Rob Cowen 2015 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

 Hiking Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science

Critic Reviews

One of the most original books of 2015. (Melissa Harrison)
Bold and beautiful. (Robert Macfarlane)
Cracking… Vividly and movingly described… Cowen writes very well. (Alan Bennett)
Absolutely mesmerising, utterly beautiful, utterly engrossing – it takes a lot for a book to give me goosebumps but this one did. (Joanne Harris)
[A] multi-faceted, touched-by-genius exploration of a stretch of Harrogate wasteland. (John Lewis-Stempel)
Marks out Cowen as a new writer who is both entertaining and significant… Cowen’s descriptive writing is visceral and gripping… and his attention to colour is particularly striking. (Richard Benson)
Magical... Deeply original... a detailed nature study [and] a moving memoir... I became both intrigued and enchanted by this hybrid approach. (Sara Maitland)
Highly poetic... like an archaeologist, Cowen unearths histories, natural life and decayed infrastructure in a small area bordering the River Nidd... Above all, Common Ground is about the transformative power of this unnoticed piece of land, if one can only stand and stare for long enough' (Serena Tarling)
Sensitive, thoughtful and poetic. Rob Cowen rakes over a scrap of land with forensic care, leading us into a whole new way of looking at the world. (Michael Palin)
No reviews yet