Human Nature

Thomas Bell walks through the Himalaya four times, once in each season, to explore how the land and the people who live there shape one another. Travel writing is woven together with folklore, literature, art and anthropology to give a layered portrait of life in this region over the centuries.

Bell has lived in Nepal for decades, which gives him a view that sits between insider and outsider. The stories he is told range across religion, ecology, political economy and a span of time from pre-history to the present. He also considers the effects of British imperialism and the growing outside pressures on the mountain environment.

Photographs accompany the text. The book moves between big ideas and individual lives, and it will suit readers who want to understand how communities and their environment depend on each other.