The Art of Camping
Matthew de Abaitua
The Art of Camping
Could there be another way of life? Can I survive with less stuff? Should I run for the hills? These are all good questions that people have asked before, throughout history, and which have inspired people to set up camp. But now camping is part of the drive for self-sufficiency, a reaction against mass tourism, a chance to connect with the land, to experience a community, to leave no trace... From packing to pitching, with hikes into the deep history of the subject and encounters with the great campers and camping movements of the past, this is the only book you'll need to pack when you next head off to sleep under the stars.
3.8 out of 5 based on 3 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Travel |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
240 |
| RRP |
£14.99 |
| Date of Publication |
July 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-0241145135 |
| Publisher |
Hamish Hamilton |
| |
Could there be another way of life? Can I survive with less stuff? Should I run for the hills? These are all good questions that people have asked before, throughout history, and which have inspired people to set up camp. But now camping is part of the drive for self-sufficiency, a reaction against mass tourism, a chance to connect with the land, to experience a community, to leave no trace... From packing to pitching, with hikes into the deep history of the subject and encounters with the great campers and camping movements of the past, this is the only book you'll need to pack when you next head off to sleep under the stars.
Read an extract from the book | Telegraph
Reviews
The Spectator
Alexander Larman
"In places it’s very funny (a description of food poisoning offers the cherishable observation, ‘there was the risk, what with my impending death, that driving might be beyond me’) but de Abaitua’s clear and passionate interest in camping for its own sake, rather than as a means to an end, ensures that his almost evangelical fervour for his subject is compelling and persuasive."
09/07/2011
Read Full Review
The Sunday Telegraph
Tom Fort
"… I approached it with some apprehension. I dreaded a chortle-inducing saga of hilarious misadventures in the Carry On Camping tradition, with him as the hapless banger-incinerating, rope-tripping Charles Hawtrey bungler. I need not have worried. He is a serious camper and a really fine writer, and the result is a revealing and consistently absorbing celebration of a passion."
26/06/2011
Read Full Review
The Guardian
Kathryn Hughes
"This is a lovely book … It's easy to mock, but De Abaitua never does, or at least not quite. In fact it gradually becomes clear over the course of the book that he camps for many of the same reasons that impelled Holding, Seton and Hargrave: he wants to shake off the debilitating effects of urban living, with its carefully doled-out portions of time and space."
06/07/2011
Read Full Review