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Canongate has bagged Grounded, a work of personal nature writing by James Canton.
Simon Thorogood, editorial director at Canongate, acquired world all-language rights from Jessica Woollard at David Higham Associates. US rights have been snapped up by HarperOne, and Black Inc will publish in Australia and New Zealand. Canongate will publish in February 2023.
“Grounded is a quest—a search for the sacred spaces in the landscape,” the synopsis reads. “Driven by a need to understand his place in the world, James seeks out the places where people have traditionally come together, whether for prayer or to grieve or to bury loved ones. In doing so he is able to connect to the lives of those who once occupied the same space, to understand who they were and how their customs shaped them and in turn gains an insight into the human condition.
“It’s a journey that takes James into our deep past and brings him to a realisation that there are lessons to learn from our ancestors and their relationship with the land, that perhaps if we rediscover the sacred in our landscape we might be better at protecting it.”
Thorogood said: “James Canton’s special talent is for articulating the potential for a communion with the natural world that goes beyond most nature writing. He argues that if we recognise that we are part of nature, not separate from it, we might just be able to save it.”
Canton has run the Wild Writing MA at the University of Essex since its inception in 2009. He is the author of The Oak Papers, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, Ancient Wonderings and Out of Essex: Re-Imagining a Literary Landscape. He reviews for the TLS, Caught by the River and Earthlines, regularly appears on TV and radio, and lectures frequently.
“It’s been a fabulous journey writing Grounded, exploring the nature of sacred landscapes and our ancestors’ ways of seeing and being in the world,” he said. “I’m really thrilled and grateful that Canongate, HarperOne and Black Inc have shown such enthusiasm for the book.”