Quartz and Feldspar: Dartmoor - A British Landscape in Modern Times

by Matthew Kelly

Granite, a tough composite of quartz, feldspar and mica, is the stuff of Dartmoor, the most formidable of the five granite bosses punctuating Britain’s southwest peninsula. A miserable place of rain and bog or a sunny upland of exquisite natural beauty, here the elements are raw, the sky huge and nature seems ascendant.But it is no less a place made by human beings. Stone circles, crosses, dwellings and boundaries speak of the ancient, medieval and modern people that extracted a living from the moorscape and created what it is today. Where convicts are incarcerated, backpackers roam freely; where commoners graze livestock, the army is trained; where the National Park Authority exercises control, the Duchy of Cornwall claims ownership. And Dartmoor remains a place that provides. Reservoirs hold the water drunk by local people. China clay is extracted from its mineral reserves. Not long ago granite was quarried from its hillsides. What is modern Dartmoor and what should it be? Did druids officiate here? Can the bog be drained and crops grown? Is it the place for a prison? And what of its people’s future, and the fate of its ponies, cows and sheep? For three hundred years such questions have been asked of the moor. Quartz and Feldspar does not so much provide answers as unearth those who did and the arguments they provoked.

Genres: Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

First published June 4, 2015

About the author

Matthew Kelly is a best-selling author, speaker, thought leader, entrepreneur, consultant, spiritual leader, and innovator.

He has dedicated his life to helping people and organizations become the-best-version-of-themselves. Born in Sydney, Australia, he began speaking and writing in his late teens while he was attending business school. Since that time, 5 million people have attended his seminars and presentations in more than 50 countries.

Today, Kelly is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, and business consultant. His books have been published in more than 30 languages, have appeared on The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists, and have sold more than 50 million copies.

In his early-twenties he developed "the-best-version-of-yourself" concept and has been sharing it in every arena of life for more than twenty-five years. It is quoted by presidents and celebrities, athletes and their coaches, business leaders and innovators, though perhaps it is never more powerfully quoted than when a mother or father asks a child, "Will that help you become the-best-version-of-yourself?"

Kelly's personal interests include golf, music, art, literature, investing, spirituality, and spending time with his wife, Meggie, and their children Walter, Isabel, Harry, Ralph, and Simon.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dartmoor is an elemental place. The largest area of granite in the country is bleak yet beautiful and on a sunny day it can really show its glorious side. But bad weather here can be a killer, fog and rain sweeping in from that Atlantic can reduce visibility in no time at all. It is one of the reasons that the army still use the area for training. It is a place that has seen human activity for millennia too, there are tombs and enclosures scattered all over the National Park as well as evidence of people using the land to scratch a living.

It is home to the Dartmoor pony, an infamous prison and has inspired writers who have used the brooding melancholy to great effect, most famously in The Hound of the Baskervilles. It first became a National park in 1951 and is made up of common land as well as substantial tracts owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, the MOD parts are owned by water companies the National Trust and the Forestry Commission. These various stakeholders have all sort of claims on the land, but the National Park Authority tries to control the various conflicting wishes.

It is not a bad book, but the emphasis is firmly looking at all the horse trading and political manoeuvring that had taken place from the formation of the park until the Dartmoor Commons Act that secured public access to the park, even on private land. I felt that there was not enough on the geology of this fascinating place and I would have preferred much more on the history on those that have used the landscape for ritual and other purposes. The political side is an element in the story of this place, but sadly it overwhelmed the book.

[Merovingiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Quartz and Feldspar' is a sophisticated historical analysis of how a much loved British landscape was shaped by human agency. Kelly presents a nuanced collage of the contesting visions of Dartmoor conceived by imagination, politics and agriculture, as a mystical space, grim prison, means of making a livelihood, store of natural resources in service to the local community, and, most importantly, a place of natural beauty. The quality of research is impeccable and denotes a historian of great ability and expertise. Kelly is in complete command of the material and guides the reader securely through thematic sections that explore the various forces that have affected the moor. The section on the Princetown prison is particularly excellent. This innovative work, an interdisciplinary exploration of a natural landscape's history, is essential reading for anyone interested in Dartmoor or environmental history. But this isn't just a work of historiography. Kelly's elegant prose makes it accessible and engaging, while the sections describing his ramblings on Dartmoor create an acute sense that anyone who has ever set foot on the moor is affected by its complex history.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I absolutely love Dartmoor having tramped across many miles as a teenager with the Duke of Edinburgh Award while living just south of the park boundary and then starting my career as an archaeologist excavating and surveying across Shaugh Moor and Holne Moor. So I was really excited to see a new book about the moor with it’s entrancing title. And I did learn more (?moor) and the book definitely brought to my attention aspects I hadn’t considered before - the competitive and sometimes conflicting rights of farmers/commoners, forestry, water supply, leisure and amenity. But much of the book is turgid - delving very much into the detailed “he said, she said” politics. A summary of much of this would have been sufficient. I’m glad I’ve read it and have an insight into the battles that raged, but it’s not a light read and won’t be recommending anyone takes it on without prior warning.

[Pippa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is clearly a labour of love with a great deal of research in it; however it goes into way too much detail making it a very challenging read. There enough fascinating facts to have made it worth finishing.

[Sam Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb help with my research