There are many varieties of austerity. There is the modest hope of Padraic Colum’s “Old woman of the roads” , thinking of the possible house she would be content to own:
“I could be quiet there at night
Beside the fire and by myself,
Sure of a bed and loth to leave
The ticking clock and the shining delph!”
And then, there is the austerity and integrity of Fran Halsall in her book, “From Shore to Summit”.
You get two things in this book; possibly, visions from an exo-planet and a dedication to tracing and understanding the deep past of Britain and Ireland. Of course, our current landscape is not like the landscape of the Jurassic or the Cretaceous, but Fran Halsall shows every indication that she would go back there if possible or necessary.
Few people have the professional discipline to take them to “Deep midwinter, High Cup Gill”
Or even to “Vale of Edale, fields and moorland”
Buy this book.