Charlotte Peacock

Charlotte Peacock is the author of Into the Mountain: A Life of Nan Shepherd.

It’s the first biography of the Scottish writer whose face now adorns the Royal Bank of Scotland’s five pound note but who, during her lifetime, faded into literary obscurity. 

In the 1930s Nan Shepherd was one of Scotland’s best-known writers. Between 1928 and 1934, she published three novels, The Quarry Wood, The Weatherhouse and A Pass in the Grampians, as well as a volume of poetry, In the Cairngorms.

Then, in 1977, came the work for which she is most famous: The Living Mountain. A short but powerful reflection on Shepherd’s experiences walking in the Cairngorms The Living Mountain is now a widely read classic, considered a masterpiece of mountain literature.

“Nan Shepherd, was an intensely private woman. But Charlotte Peacock has been as successful in finding her way into the life of her subject as Shepherd herself was in “finding her way into the mountains”. Into the Mountain unravels the mysteries of this enigmatic writer and brings her vividly to life.”

Read reviews by Robert Macfarlane, The Guardian and The Spectator.

Click on the image to buy the book.

Other works by Charlotte Peacock

Charlotte Peacock’s work in progress

Charlotte Peacock is currently working on a new project exploring the poet Edward Thomas‘s connection to Minsmere, in Suffolk.

And, inspired by creating her own writing shed, Charlotte’s also exploring writers’ rooms. You can follow her literary tour of where writers write on her blog.