In the 1930s Nan Shepherd was one of Scotland's best-known writers. Three novels, The Quarry Wood, The Weatherhouse and A Pass in the Grampians - as well as a volume of poetry, In the Cairngorms - were all published between 1928 and 1934 while she was in her 30s. These books established her reputation as one of the most highly respected members of the Scottish Modernist movement. Then, much later, in 1977, came The Living Mountain, a short but powerful reflection on her experiences walking in the Cairngorms - a book which was immediately described as a masterpiece by some of the original reviewers. Incredibly, the manuscript of The Living Mountain had been in Nan's drawer since the 1940s when she first wrote it. It is now a widely read classic. But just as the manuscript had lain unpublished for all those years, it wasn't really until ten years ago that the genius of this book was truly discovered when it was re-published with an introductory essay by Robert Macfarlane. Nan died in