Polar Books Collection

Enthuse anyone aged 7 upwards with curiosity about Arctic conservation issues, using these short poems - illustrated with full-page colour photographs of fulmars, an arctic fox, icebergs, halibut heads, mare’s tail… Meet little “Arctic Fox”, going about her daily business. Find out what on earth is going on in “Giant Pétanque”: A narrative poem where “Mead merry giants” play a strange and violent game, buckling the ground and leaving behind a bizarre set of stones. Imagine the life-rhythm of cotton grass: overwintering beneath wind-scoured snow and germinating as it melts, keeping “Seed Time”. Wonder at the unsettling feel of an iceberg floating outside someone’s back door: “Ecology” means science of the home, yet the poem “Monster” shows how living with the climate presents a world of challenges.

Rachel Hosein-Nisbet trained as a geologist, studying glaciers first hand in Svalbard and the Swiss Alps. She has previously published scientific and travel writings. Her poetry celebrates the wonder of living in this world, mindful that: “An object should not be consumed. One should be consumed by the object” (Théâtre du Movement).

Gilbert Paquet is an award-winning photographer and a biologist, who is captivated by the Polar Regions. He has travelled in Greenland, Svalbard and Lapland by foot, ski and sea kayak. When at home in Switzerland, he takes photographs of the Jura mountains and their wildlife. Trekking here, under certain conditions - these mountains can magic him to the far north.