The Playground of the Far East

“Walter Weston was an English clergyman, writer and mountaineer. I first encountered his work when I was researching nature writers who had visited Japan. Weston was famously captivated by Japanese landscapes, and he brought the Japanese Alps to the attention of the world with this book, The Playground of the Far East. I can really identify with Weston’s descriptions of alpine Japan – its silence and solitude; its vast beauty. I remember he describes a ‘mighty tree-grown amphitheatre’ above a cliff that ‘falls in three great leaps a thousand feet’ – to me this is such a powerful image. This book conjures a new world on every page.” Read more...

The best books on Botany

Chris Thorogood, Biologist