[6] Crumley is also a poet, an occasional broadcaster on both radio and television and a frequent speaker at events and book festivals on nature, rewilding and conservation.
[8] Although he is now predominantly a nature writer whose works focus on the Scottish landscape, his experience as a journalist and his uncompromising stance on the need for more species conservation both continue to inform his writing and its emphasis on close observation.
The quartet casts its net all over Scotland, stretching from Shetland and St Kilda to the heartlands and the Pentland Hills, and beyond, to northern Europe and the Americas.
Crumley describes the variety of wildlife across the country, and sheds light on climate change and the role of humanity as an active agent within the environment.
[13] In the BBC Countryfile magazine, Julie Brominicks described Crumley's account as written with a “dazzling clarity, lyrical tilt and a story-teller’s skill".
It was short-listed for the 2021 Highland Book Prize, evidencing its attraction as a “work of pure escapism” and strength as “the perfect finale to this evocative seasonal collection”, in the words of Tiffany Francis-Baker written in the BBC Wildlife Magazine.
He traces the Lake District’s place in the evolution of global conservation, considers the many commentators who have written on the area before, and pleads the case for a far-reaching reappraisal of all of Lakeland’s wildness at a time when both farming and ever more visitors are threatening its ecosystems.
It was described by Mark Avery as “Intelligent and cultured, but not flowery or overblown” and that it has a “deeper message that nature should be the overriding priority in National Parks".
Employing his trademark beautiful prose and empathy for life in the wild, Crumley considers the future for Britain's beavers and makes the case for giving them their freedom despite their controversial status.