‘I lived alone in this cottage for five years, summer and winter, with no transport, no phone. This is the story of those five years, where I lived and how I lived. It is the story of what it means to live in a place so remote that you may not see another soul for weeks on end. And it is the story of the hidden places that I came to call my own, and the wild creatures that became my society.'

Coming out early in Penguin paperbacks on 02/02/12 after selling out in hardback.

The book was widely reviewed on first release – here is a selection of quotes that didn’t make it to the book jacket.

‘Birds are at the heart of this extraordinary book. His imaginative life literally takes flight. This is why Deep Country is so powerful. Ansell is a symbolically unnatural figure: the naturalist-hermit isolated in a dilapidated cottage. He reminds us what we can see when we are alone. ’ Independent

‘Neil Ansell’s lovely Deep Country, about the birds and landscape of mid-Wales…the attraction is the slow pace. There is no need for hurry, no requirement for horror, just immersion in a place and time that is different, even when it is not far from our own.’ Guardian

 ‘Mr. Ansell's nature writing is both lyrical and practical,but even more compelling is the specter of Mr. Ansell himself, looming stubbornly half-hidden from the picture.’ Wall Street Journal

‘Through his beautiful prose, the mid-Wales countryside becomes a place of solitude and wonder.’ Lonely Planet Magazine

‘A gem of a book. His rich prose will transport you to a real-life Narnian world that CS Lewis would have envied.’ BBC Countryfile

‘Despite being the author’s first book, Deep Country may well become a classic. I loved it because of the contrast between the author’s tranquility and the unceasing activity of the natural world he observes.’ Taipei Times

‘Written with ardent detail and a simple, sparely-rendered poetry. He constantly looks outward and steadily becomes part of the landscape, a landscape unpeopled but full of life, a man alone but never anchored in loneliness. Immersed in the natural world, watching and thinking as the fauna all around, he rediscovers something elemental, a keen awareness of being.’ Caught by the River.