The Heeding

A year of looking, listening and noticing across four unique seasons and thirty-five beautifully illustrated poems.

The world changed in 2020. Gradually at first, then quickly and irreversibly, the patterns by which we once lived altered completely.

Across four seasons and a luminous series of poems and illustrations, Rob Cowen and Nick Hayes paint a picture of a year caught in the grip of history yet filled with unforgettable moments. A sparrowhawk hunting in a back street; the moon over a town with a loved one’s hand held tight; butterflies massing in a high-summer yard – the everyday wonders and memories that shape a life and help us recall our own.

The Heeding leads us on a journey that takes its markers and signs from nature and a world filled with fear and pain but beauty and wonder too. Collecting birds, animals, trees and people together, it is a profound meditation to a time no one will forget.

‘Rob Cowen, the acclaimed nature writer and author Common Ground, joins forces with printmaker Nick Hayes for this luminous sequence of poems, which forms a meditation on our relationship with the natural world through four seasons of a global pandemic.’ - Caroline Sanderson, Editor’s Choice, The Bookseller

‘Dazzling’ ROBERT MACFARLANE ⬤ ‘Breathtaking!’ DARA MCANULTY ⬤ ‘Exquisite’ LUCY JONES ⬤ ‘Poetic’ JOANNE HARRIS ⬤ ‘Tender’ TIM DEE ⬤ ‘Beautiful’ WILLEM DAFOE ⬤ ‘It glows’ JACKIE MORRIS