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Upland

The Strange History and Vital Future of Britain’s Mountains

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Upland

By: Ed Douglas
Narrated by: Ed Douglas
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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

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.

‘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

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

‘Beautifully written’ LAURA SPINNEY, author of Proto

© Ed Douglas 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Ecosystems & Habitats Environment Europe Great Britain Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science
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Critic Reviews

Glorious . . . a beguiling history . . . Ed Douglas's achievement in this excellent book is to return a proper sense of colour and even carnival to Britain's high places . . The truth is that mountains have shaped much of our island story . . . One delight of his capacious . . . narrative is the room it leaves for delightful cameos by remarkable individuals (Kathryn Hughes)
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
Rich and adventurous . . . always smart and well informed
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
The mountains, constant and unchanging on any human scale, are a good lens through which to view our preoccupations . . . Douglas’s central message is right: we cannot separate ourselves from the landscape; it is place that makes people (Adam Weymouth)
A heady and exciting time-lapse of British history mapped onto the land’s topography … Highly readable and approachable . . . A fully absorbable chronicle . . . as dramatic as any Victorian novel . . . The kind of book to return to again and again
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)
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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.