Books

The Quiet Moon (Jan 5th 2023)

‘Like its subject, The Quiet Moon is glistening, rich and strange … soulfully bewitching at
every quarter, good company through every wax and wane.’
Tim Dee, broadcaster and author of The Running Sky and Four Fields

‘A powerfully honest and deeply reassuring exploration of an individual’s place in the world,
and the incalculable wealth found when we take the time to notice the natural world and its
rhythms.’
Fergus Collins, editor of BBC Countryfile Magazine

‘Lunar curiosity guides this graceful sharing, not only of Parr’s deep knowing of the natural
world, but also his vulnerability as he wrestles with mental health. A beautifully personal
book that’s bound by a sweet melancholy.’
Verity Sharp, broadcaster

‘Kev Parr stands among the finest natural history writers of our generation … a masterful
storyteller and a man wholly unafraid to bare his soul on the page. With him, the reader is
blessed with the most thoughtful guide and companion.’
Will Millard, BBC presenter and author of The Old Man and the Sand Eel

Book Description

The ancient Celts lived by and worshipped the moon, but modern, digital life is often at odds with nature, rubbing against it rather than working in harmony with it. Is there something to be said for embracing this ancient way of being and reconnecting to the moon’s natural calendar?

January’s Quiet Moon reflects an air of melancholy, illuminating a midwinter of quiet menace; it was the time of the Dark Days for the ancient Celts, when the natural world balances on a knife edge. By May, the Bright Moon brings happiness as time slows, mayflies cloud and elderflowers cascade.

Nature approaches her peak during a summer of short nights and bright days – a time when the ancient Celts claimed their wives and celebrated
Lughnasadh. With the descent into winter comes the sadness of December’s Cold Moon. Trees stand bare and creatures shiver their way to shelter as the Dark Days creep in once more and the cycle restarts.

In The Quiet Moon, Kevin Parr discovers that a year of moons has much to teach us about how to live in the world that surrounds us – and how being more in tune to the rhythms of nature, even in the cold and dark, can help ease the suffering mind.

Pre-order ‘The Quiet Moon’ at Amazon – here

Rivers Run

‘Kevin Parr knows how to fish, how to read a river and how to write. A book that flows like a river’ Chris Yates, author of Nightwalk

‘Like all the best nature writers, Kevin is a master of the landscape. He pulls at the edges of your understanding to reveal a hidden world and then weaves his reflections and insights together in this celebration of a life lived with the wild’ Dan Kieran, author of The Idle Traveller

“a moving treatise on the way we deal with the dark things that life throws at us” (BBC Countryfile Magazine)

Book Description

An angler’s journey around Britain’s rivers and waterways, showing how nature reflects the themes in all our lives.

Rivers Run is a love letter to Britain’s rivers and waterways by well-known angler and naturalist Kevin Parr. On a journey around his favourite watery hideaways the author shares the thoughts and insights that bubble up while sitting peacefully by the riverside, watching the world go by and waiting for the fish to bite.

Each river that he visits has played a central part in his own development as both an angler and a person, and reflects the ways in which landscape, wildlife and plants mirror the themes that flow through all our lives. Rivers Run is a delightful yet profound philosophical and poetic examination of water, of the fish that live within it, the nature that surrounds it and how human life is intrinsically linked to its flow.

Long-listed for Richard Jeffries Award for Nature Writing.

Rivers Run is available from Amazon here.

The Idle Angler

‘Parr explores depths rarely plumbed in angling writing, examining its philosophies and idiosyncrasies in a way that is hugely engaging. This is fishing – not necessarily as we know it, but as most of us would want it to be. The Idle Angler offers a uniquely entertaining and articulate manifesto that can only bring joy.’ – Jon Berry, Caught by the River

‘Why do people become obsessed with coarse fishing? This book is an attempt to explain – and largely succeeds . . . There are skills to be imbued – how to read the water and other wildlife; the thrill of the hunt; the sense of escape from everyday worries; and deep companionship with angling friends and the natural world. There’s much to enjoy here . . ..‘ – Fergus Collins, BBC Countryfile Magazine

‘Kevin Parr is a fishing buddy of Chris Yates, one of my favourite fishing authors, and without wishing to make churlish comparisons, this book is very much from the same philosophy – that the journey is more important than the destination – and it is very enjoyable as a result. With 12 chapters loosely based on the structure of a day’s angling, the book teases out the essence of why angling is so enjoyable, drawing on personal experience and literature past and present.‘ – Salmo Trutta

‘Anyone who wants a witty, thought-provoking read about why exactly we go fishing would do well to read this book. In a thoroughly engaging style, Kevin writes from personal experiences, covering everything from local ponds and canals to American bass. One for the bedside table.’ – Angling Times

Nominated for Book of the Year in the Angling Times backed National Angling Awards 2014.

The Idle Angler is available from Medlar Press here.

The Twitch

It has pace and humour and suspense and twists….I’m very glad that I bought The Twitch – it’s a fun book.’ – Mark Avery – Campaigner, blogger and Author of Inglorious and A Message from Martha

‘In his darkly comic tale, Kevin Parr blends the world of competitive bird spotting with a spree of Kind Hearts and Coronets style serial killing.’ – Dorset Life

The Twitch is available from Amazon here.