In 1931, after two decades of wandering the world, Llewelyn Powys moved into an isolated cliff-top cottage in Dorset, where he embarked on a series of essays embracing what he called 'the poetry of life'. In their evocations of land and sea, of childhood and old age, of wildlife, chance meetings and remembered conversations, they are a poignant love letter to the English countryside. ----- Stimulated by history and legend, indeed by the very smell of the earth, Powys engages us with the natural world in a spirit of unflinching honesty. A true countryman and sharp-eyed observer, his writings range from the habits of the hedgehog to the daily round of the ploughman, from the healing power of landscape to the aquatic life of a pond. Part manifesto for the life-enhancing power of nature, part a philosophy for living formed by bitter-sweet experience, all these writings are underpinned by the 'miracle' of being alive, and a belief that the enjoyment of nature is the birthright of us all.