The Vanishing Ice

There are few more beautiful places than Scotland’s winter mountains. But even when most of the snow has melted, isolated patches can linger well into summer and beyond. In The Vanishing Ice, Iain Cameron chronicles these remarkable and little-seen relics of the Ice Age, describing how they have fascinated travellers and writers for hundreds of years, and reflecting on the impact of climate change.

Iain was nine years old when snow patches first captured his imagination, and they have been inextricably bound with his life ever since. He developed his expertise through correspondence (and close friendship) with research ecologist Dr Adam Watson, and is today Britain’s foremost authority on this weather phenomenon.

Iain takes us on a tour of Britain which includes the Scottish Highlands, the Southern Uplands, the Lake District and Snowdonia, seeking elusive patches of snow in wild and often inaccessible locations. His adventures include a perilous climb in the Cairngorms with comedian Ed Byrne, and glorious days spent out on the hills with Andrew Cotter and his very good dogs, Olive and Mabel.

Early one morning in May 1983, nine-year-old Iain Cameron looked out of the living room window and glimpsed a shining patch of brilliant white on distant Ben Lomond. This sparked a fascination with snow patches that would become a life’s work. A citizen scientist, Iain has written more than twenty scientific papers for the Royal Meteorological Society’s Weather journal; and he is the co-author of Cool Britannia (2010), a book examining the history of snow patches in Britain during the Little Ice Age. Iain’s work has been featured in the Guardian, the Independent and the Sunday Times, and he is a regular contributor to the Times and the BBC. He has appeared on Winterwatch and Countryfile and in numerous features on BBC Radio Scotland. He lives in Stirling and spends many weekends in the Scottish Highlands carrying out detailed fieldwork.

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