I fell in love with the cover and then fell in love with the stories in this book. They are magical and bring back the spirit of winter and of the season when Nature in sleeping and alive at the same time.
I loved it and it's highly recommended
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The idea is lovely - a collection of winter tales in one neat book with a gorgeous cover -, but the introduction by the story collector/author is way too long. And I hate to say this: boring. I forced myself to read it and couldn't read for long, because my eyes fell shut. This from an avid reader. The introduction should be short and crispy like hardened snow under one's boot, not like sludgy, mushy sleet. I'm sorry, but the intro left such a bad lasting impression that it's hard to get over it. After finishing it, I only read the first story and decided to leave it at that.

Still... Thanks for the advance copy. Not every book can be a winner & more patient readers might not feel this passionately about the intro or simply skip it.

This is my kind of book! I adore winter and this is just perfect to settle down with on a cold winters evening! I loved it so much I bought a physical copy! I hope there’s a follow up!

What an absolutely gorgeous collection of writings about winter! Nancy Cambell has done a beautiful job of collecting classic writings about winter from a wide range of cultural traditions. This is a perfect book for a bedside table or cozy corner to encourage someone to sit and reflect for a bit. Each entry is brief, and most could be read in 5-10 minutes. Overall a lovely gift for the readers in your life (or for yourself). It has certainly made me appreciate the winter season more!

With the seasons changing, this was the perfect book for me to settle into each night to read a few stories.

"Nature Tales for Winter Nights" is truly what this book is about. Nancy Campbell has collected an incredible variety of winter and nature stories - fiction, non-fiction, and poetry to share within this book. Some of the collected authors included are Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, John Clare, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Charles Darwin, Daniel Defore, Charlotte Du Cann, John Evelyn, Anne Frank, James Frazer, Vincent van Gogh, Kenneth Grahame, Olaus Magnus, William Shakespeare, Sei Shonagon, Henry David Thoreau, Walk Whitman, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Wordsworth, and many more!

I don't believe this is a book you just jump into and read from start to finish. You could but I feel each short story and poem deserves it's own bit of attention.

Thank you, #NetGalley, #NancyCampbell, and #Elliott&Thompson, for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I will say, I was drawn to this book by title and vibes of the cover alone, and pleasantly enjoyed it so much more! I made myself pop on a digital fireplace or winter cabin scene every time I picked this up because it felt like the only correct thing to do. As a collection, I really appreciated that there were both fiction and non-fiction stories to dive into, as well as poetry and many authors to sample. Some of the stories were actual extracts from larger collections too, which left me both a little disappointed when they were over and excited that I will be able to find more elsewhere should I want to.

I chose to experience this book in smaller snippets, picking it up and setting it down after a story or two, but I could see it being an easy cover-to-cover read with how inviting each story is and the shorter length of the book overall. I learned a lot about the natural world along the way, and would highly recommend to nature lovers as a companion to follow you through the cold, dark greys of winter, casting a warm glow of life and hope until spring arrives again.

In truth, I think I liked the concept of this one much more than the execution. The book examines small snippets of text that revolve around the colder months. While I did enjoy seeing the season through others eyes and prose, the delivery felt disjointed, lacking any whimsy or heart.

This book was such a struggle to get through. I didn't enjoy it at all and couldn't recommend it to anyone. The items for this collection seem to have been chosen just if they had anything remotely relating to winter or weather. Many sections are just flat, uninteresting logbook entries about the weather. Some stories were shortened from their original or sections taken so out of context that I didn't even know what was going on.

Not to mention the author's looong, slightly pretension introduction to the collection. I guess I won't even get into that.

This review is also posted to my Goodreads account.

I did enjoy this book, it was like being transported to different times and places to experience winter. Although the theme was the same, the pieces were all different and individual. A lovely book to dip into when travelling .

This book is a true gift to those who love winter and all of it's many faces. We read it as a group read and everyone loved it for so many different reasons it's impossible to pick just one. This book will make a lovely gift for any reader.

Although I think this would be a amazing book for the right person, it just wasn't the right book for me. I can't really put a finger on why though. Maybe essays and short stories just aren't my thing?

I liked that it focused on winter stories and had a cozy feel to it. I also think that a lot of people would enjoy that it was a series of essays and short stories. This makes it easy to pick up and read some each day or as you get the chance.

This book was not to my taste, and I don't think it's the book's fault. Obviously there's some well known authors in this collection, and there's a clear theme among the works. However, the works themselves sound like a collection of word salads. They talk about stuff, but there's not much for story. When people say "beautiful writing" and mean "no plot," they are talking about writing just like this.

As the weather turns from the heat of summer to the chill of autumn and winter, these stories are the perfect compliment to cozy winter wear.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in excahnge for an honest review.

I loved this book! Beautiful stories, especially this time of year transitioning to Fall and preparing for Winter.
Cozy, lovely, and worth the time to sit, relax, and dive into these stories.
Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for access to this eARC.

Imagine that is four o’clock on a late fall or winter afternoon. A cup of tea or coffee or hot chocolate is on the table and this book is in your hands.

Take the time to read an entry any day that you have the opportunity. It will see you through many a cold, dark night.

Some of the entries in this book are very short as is the first one by Anne Frank. At most the others are still less than ten pages.

There are authors whose names I recognized including Virginia Woolf, Tove Jansson, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Vincent Van Gogh. Interspersed with their writings were many minutes of getting new perspectives on the time of year.

Start with the author’s introduction and then read this one in any order. It is a title that I will be pulling out again and again.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Elliott & Thompson for this title. All opinions are my own.

A beautiful collection of essays perfect reading for the winter months.I loved the authors first book Fifty Words For Snow and now I’m delighted to add this wonderful collection to my library. #netgalley #elliot&thompson

This was such a cosy book and I really enjoyed it. Each short story wanted me to continue with the others. I could imagine these feeling more cosy in winter

This was such a beautiful arrangement of stories that highlight the beauty of nature. One to recommend to all ages.

A lovely collection of works relating to nature in winter months, spanning many different authors and countries. There is no real organisation into themes but that makes it a lovely book to pick up and open at random through the winter months, all the wintry topics adding to a sense of cosiness for readers at home. This is a more varied range of authors than many of this type of compendium, some of them more enjoyable than others for me, but it’s an interesting selection.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

‘’At the winter solstice the clouds were heavy, chalk grey, the air still with snow that never seemed to fall. Without the generous canopy and riotous undergrowth of summer, my tiny home felt exposed. No leaves on the hawthorn hedge to offer protection from the wind, or dispel curious glances; in daylight, all my movements could be seen, and in the darkness any light cast from my van window betrayed my presence in the woods. Constellations turned above the thin roof and the long nights and short days sped past.’’

Instead of a boring introduction from yours truly, read the following extract by Nancy Campbell. It is heartbreakingly beautiful.

‘’Candles were lit in the sconces. In this soft light, kindness and kinship hovered at the corners of the rooms as we spoke of books we loved in various languages, recommended other writers in and out of translation, read shyly from the first drafts of poems, and somehow, at some point, I stopped seeing time as something urgently demarcated by the lines in my diary, and began to feel the space open up between them.’’

A haunting mixture of Fiction and Non-Fiction. It is a book that breathes and lives Winter in all its dark, harsh, poetically sad glory. A treasure for the long evenings when time stands still in the finest way possible. In its pages, you will meet Anne Frank, Charles Darwin, Kenneth Grahame, Walt Whitman, Vincent Van Gogh, Charlotte Bronte, to name a few.

the wind

24 December 1943

‘’Whenever someone comes in from outside, with the wind in their clothes and the cold on their cheeks, I feel like burying my head under the blanket to keep from thinking. ‘When will we be allowed to breathe fresh air again?’’

Anne Frank

A snow mountain must be kept safe at all costs in Kyoto and it is simply extraordinary to think that such a vivid, marvellous text was written during the 11th century. Daisy Hildyard pays homage to the holly, the most beautiful symbol of winter, and Damian Le Bas writes about mistletoe, Cornwall and the New Travellers while Virginia Woolf describes London during winter in a haunting passage during one of the most important scenes in Orlando.

‘’It was an evening of astonishing beauty. As the sun sank, all the domes, spires, turrets, and pinnacles of London rose in inky blackness against the furious red sunset clouds. Here was the fretted cross at Charing; there like a grove of trees stripped of all leaves save a knob at the end were the heads on the pikes at Temple Bar.’’

Virginia Woolf

In Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov’s extract from The Kolyma Tales, a prisoner in a gulag in the Arctic region outsmarts a brutish guard and Marchelle Farrell writes a haunting piece about Yule and exhaustion.

‘’I am tired. What a dream it would be to rest until the first signs of spring. I take my cue from the garden, die back where I can, keep growing where I must. I love my dreams of the garden – it grows within the now, shows itself even when I am not in it. There is such comfort in being so rooted. I wonder if the garden dreams now of me.’’

Marchelle Farrell

Vincent Van Gogh takes an evening walk across the heath, during a storm and Dorothy Pilley writes about the treacherous mountains of Spain and resilient guides. Tim Dee’s words paint a beautiful image of the moor during dusk, while Charlotte Du Cann transports from the scorching heat of Greece to the northern winter through a profound encounter with a figure from times unknown.

‘’Dusk on the winter solstice: the shortest day and longest night of the year. I was cold and alone on a track on the Somerset Levels, looking towards the dying light in the west. Moving across the sky in front of me, like the breath of the earth, were thousands of birds – starlings arriving to roost, to put away their day, and so too, on this day, the year.’’

Tim Dee

Elizabeth – Jane Burnett narrates a meteor shower in Devon in a mesmerizing voice and Sarah Thomas brings this beautiful collection to an end with her hymn to cold nights in the Arctic.

‘’I stand out in the wide night. An owl hoots from further down the field. The grey cloud moves under the moon like smoke from a fire. When it clears, the brilliance is intense. It is like nothing else. As I gaze up, I see three stars in a row on a diagonal under it: Orion’s Belt. I wonder if I’m seeing any planets.’’

Elizabeth – Jane Burnett

I could have underlined every page of this gem. Nancy Campbell is an outstanding writer and a phenomenal editor. This volume must find a place in your collection.

‘’The heartbeat slows, the chimney smokes, the stars fall. The enchanted month in the castle came to a close, and I tidied my desk and climbed the library ladder to return books to their places on the shelves. As I gathered up my sheaf of papers, I looked forward to returning home. The remaining nights of winter might be dark and cold and damp, but now I was listening for the call of the blackbird. I awaited the first snowdrops, with hope.’’

Nancy Campbell

Many thanks to Elliot & Thompson and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.