The first complete history of Britain’s mountains, capturing their beauty, tragedy and the pivotal role of these dramatic landscapes in the nation’s past and future

‘A definitive history of our rocky isles from the most magisterial and far-seeing perspective. Every page holds a fascinating nugget’ GAIA VINCE, author of Nomad Century

Britain’s mountains are our grandest and wildest places, their vast openness providing inspiration and escape. But they are now so revered that we overlook the many peoples who long inhabited them and the dramatic history of plunder and dispossession that explains how strangely empty these regions have become.

Derided for centuries as uncivilised wastes, Britain’s uplands in fact hosted richly cultured, distinctive and resilient populations. And yet by the time Romantic poets ‘discovered’ the beauty of these places, the land itself had been denuded by clearances, famine and the needs of sheep and landowners.

From the earliest Brittonic tribes to present-day tensions between farmers, tourists and ecological activists, Upland repopulates Britain’s mountains with the kings and monks, soldiers and poets, engineers and industrialists, visionaries and campaigners who made them what they are.

‘Completely enthralling and original. Our fragile landscapes have a fine new biographer’ NICHOLAS CRANE, author of Latitude

‘Beautifully written’ LAURA SPINNEY, author of Proto

Engrossing . . . a must-read for anyone with an interest in past, present and future of Britain’s mountains . . . wonderful . . . rich in detail and incident . . . a nuanced, clear-eyed and informative picture * Scotsman *
Rich and adventurous . . . always smart and well informed * Literary Review *
Britain’s mountains have rich, dramatic human histories that linger to this day . . . untold, eye-opening stories of conflict and control surrounding our wildest places * Independent *
This book is completely enthralling and original – and can only have been written by someone with a profound love of our uplands. The sense of time through geology and of space through elevation gives the book an epic scale; readers are left in no doubt that uplands are a unique witness to our island story and to many of our natural predicaments. Our fragile landscapes have a fine new biographer -- Nicholas Crane, author of Latitude
Deeply researched and authoritative, Douglas has produced a definitive history of the peoples, cultures and lands of our rocky isles from the most magisterial and far-seeing perspective. Every page holds a fascinating nugget – I learned so much -- Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century
Our hills and mountains, though scattered, are a kingdom of their own. Nobody has ever gathered into a book their human story, their geography, their past and their future, before. Ed Douglas has achieved this with elegance and passion -- Matthew Parris
Beautifully written -- Laura Spinney, author of Proto

Ed Douglas is a prize-winning writer about mountains whose books include Himalaya: A Human History, which was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize, Kinder Scout: The People's Mountain and a biography of Tenzing Norgay. He won the Boardman Tasker Award for mountain literature in 2010. He has been a climber for forty-five years and was for a decade the editor of mountaineering’s oldest publication, the Alpine Journal. He lives in Sheffield.