Strathdearn Book Club

Now in our third year the Strathdearn Book Club welcomes new members. As ever, we read a wide range of titles taking suggestions from all our members - it's amazing what you can learn when you read outwith your normal choices.

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Contact Michelle Bertie if interested

Have you seen the new book on the River Findhorn??

Books about the River Findhorn are few and far between; now it has inspired what promises to become a classic of environmental and outdoor literature.

Jamie Whittle is an environmental lawyer and ski instructor who lives near Forres in the North of Scotland. An avid ski-mountaineer, canoeist and kayaker, he has travelled extensively throughout the world. White River is the story of his walk from the estuary of the Findhorn to its source in the Monadhliath Mountains, and the canoe journey back down. He meets people along the way, sights animals and historical landmarks, and links the locale of the river to his many travels about the wider world.

Jamie Whittle was a Morehead Scholar to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA where he earned a BA in Modern Languages with Honours. Returning to Scotland to study Law at the University of Edinburgh, he also completed an MSc with Distinction in Human Ecology at The Centre for Human Ecology. He now works as an environmental lawyer.

'White River is one of those rare environmental books that, more than a local travelogue, takes us on a journey into the soul of modern times.. Holding the lawyer's scales of balance as he goes, Jamie Whittle recognises that the river runs between two banks. One is economic and practical. The other is aesthetic and idealistic. Without both we are undone, but with them, this constantly shifting equilibrium, we can glide through the potential paradise that is Earth.'
Professor Alastair McIntosh - Centre for Human Ecology in his foreword

The book is beautifully illustrated by Forres based Jo Darling, whose work will be shown at the Tomatin Inn from Monday 10th December.

Jo Darling is a painter of landscapes and still life, and a printmaker. Without formal art school training, she studied for seven years with New York artist Randy Klinger at the Moray Art Studio on Findhorn Bay, drawing, discussing aesthetics and refining perception. She works as an artist and teacher.

Robert Macfarlane, author of the phenomenally successful Mountains of the Mind, had this to say about White River.
'White River is a passionate and astute piece of work. A journey-book in the tradition of Basho's Narrow Road to a Far Province, mixing poetry, prose and meditation. Jamie Whittle is never blind to modernity's grip on the river, but never deaf to the river's old magic either'