Wintering, five years on
An exclusive new excerpt + where to find 'Wintering' goodies!
The gorgeous new gift edition of Wintering came out yesterday in the UK, complete with a shiny upgrade to the cover, and a new afterword that I wrote to update the book on its fifth birthday. It reflects on the years that have passed since publication, and takes us deep into the ancient passage tomb at Newgrange in Ireland. Below is an exclusive excerpt.
If you’re thinking of buying a fresh copy - or maybe your first one; no judgement - please consider your local indie. For once, that’s not just an entreaty to keep this community stalwarts alive and kicking. This year, selected stores are giving away some lovely goodies alongside copies of Wintering, including exclusive bookmarks and bars of Tony’s Chocalonely! There are only a limited number of these packs available, so please get in early to avoid disappointment.
These are the independent shops taking part in the offer:
Book-Ish | Crickhowell & Abergavenny
Bookshop On The Square | Otley, West Yorkshire
Carnforth Bookshop | Carnforth Lancashire
Chorleywood Bookshop | Hertfordshire
City Books | Hove
Coach House Books | Pershore, Worcestershire
The Beverley Bookshop | Beverley, Hull
Darling Reads | Horbury, Wakefield
Daydreams Bookshop | Milngavie, Glasgow
Diss Publishing Bookshop | Norfolk
Edinburgh Bookshop | Edinburgh
The Accidental Bookshop, The Bound & Forum Books | Alnwick, Whitley Bay & Corbridge, Northumberland
Griffin Books | Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan
Gullivers Wimborne | Wimborne, Dorset
Hare & Hawthorn | Hastings
House Of Books & Friends | Manchester
Hungerford Bookshop | Hungerford
Hunt’s Bookshop | Rugby
Imagined Things | Harrogate
Portobello Bookshop | Edinburgh
Little Ripon Bookshop | Ripon
Mabecron Falmouth Bookseller | Falmouth & St Ives
Mostly Books | Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Nomad Book Shop | London
Red Lion Books | Colchester
Salts Mill Bookshop | Saltaire, Shipley
Seven Fables | Dulverton, Somerset
Tea Leaves And Reads | Weyhill, Andover
The Mainstreet Trading Company | Melrose, Dumfriesshire
Trumans Farsley Leeds | Pudsey
Wantage Bookshop | Wantage, Oxfordshire
Westwood Books | Sedbergh, Cumbria
Whitby Bookshop | Whitby
Winstone’s | Sherborne, Dorset
Happy reading! I hope you enjoy the excerpt below.
When I sat down to write Wintering, I thought I might be marking an end to a pattern that had dogged me throughout my life. It was, after all, a book borne of experience, a certain intimacy with winter. I had spent most of my forty-odd years thinking that my regular low seasons were a shameful secret, mine alone.
Yet talking to a friend one night about her feelings of desolation after a series of losses, I’d been struck by a sudden recognition. This was my own experience, mirrored back at me. Maybe it was entirely normal, and what was not normal was our habit of concealing these periods of struggle and isolation. This particular friend was a sun-worshipper, and I, true lover of the cold, felt she needed to become better acquainted with the other three seasons, all of them carrying the risk of a sharp frost. As a longstanding Sylvia Plath fan-girl, a word for it came quickly to my tongue. Wintering was born in a moment.
Except, of course, it was not. My existing publisher passed on what they felt was too quiet a book to make much of an impact, and it took a while to find someone willing to take it on. After the contract was signed, I sat down to write it and found it harder than I expected. Life kept getting in the way. Things happened - big, ground-shaking things that made me feel as though I had no business writing a book about surviving dark times. After all, wasn’t I supposed to be writing from the sunlit uplands, having learned my lesson? Didn’t writing this book make me immune from the experiences it described?
It took me a long time - terrifyingly close to my deadline, in fact - to realise that I had fallen into exactly the trap I was trying to write about, wanting my own life to take an impossibly perfect shape. I yearned for Wintering to be pristine as fresh snow, a glittering icy canvas upon which I could etch my hard-earned wisdom. Perhaps the Cailleach visited me during that desolate time; perhaps she decided she would have to show me the true nature of winter. If she did, then I am grateful. Wintering would have been pointless if it hadn’t cleaved to my direct experience at a very bleak time in my life.
It took me an equally long time to realise that I needed to be honest about the true nature of winter, too. I love winter, but I did not want to sanitise it. Yes, my fingers were itching to write about the glamour of a hoar frost or the crisp blue skies that only arrive with the deep cold, but to truly convey their utter gorgeousness, I had to also acknowledge the starkness of the season, the sense of raw survival, the danger of icy roads. Winter is, at best, a mixed blessing, an encounter with both delight and degradation. It is a very exact mirror on the human condition.
If you think a friend or loved one would enjoy The Clearing by Katherine May, gift subscriptions are available here | Website | Buy: Enchantment UK /US | Buy: Wintering UK / US | Buy: The Electricity of Every Living Thing UK / US | Join: The Way Through Winter course
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Aww, I loved reading this lovely excerpt! Happy 5 year anniversary Katherine- I don’t doubt that I’ll keep buying copies of wintering as it’s so often the gift that says the things we deeply need to hear when life is hard. Despite some grey skies this week I hope you can bask in celebrating it and your success this week, you deserve it!
i am re-reading Wintering again, an annual endeavor. month-by-month. i have changed in the five years since i first held this tender book in my hands--sighing, recognizing my deep desire to rest (okay, that is always present...). as i reflect on my own changing perspective as i read now, i've been wondering what updates you would add. and now the gift of a glimmer! i would love an updated copy in my hands and to read the afterword. when will it be available in the US? and will it be as gorgeous?
oh, and i recommend/gift Wintering to many folks.