Heaven's Breath - by Lyall Watson (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published: New York: Morrow, 1984.

Book Synopsis

A "comprehensive and fascinating study" of how wind has shaped the world as we know it, affecting all aspects of human and natural life--from geography to political history, plant life to psychology, and biology to philosophy (The Observer)

Wind is everywhere and nowhere. Wind is the circulatory system of the earth, and its nervous system, too. Energy and information flow through it. It brings warmth and water, enriches and strips away the soil, aerates the globe. Wind shapes the lives of animals, humans among them. Trade follows the path of the wind, as empire also does. Wind made the difference in wars between the Greeks and Persians, the Mongols and the Japanese. Wind helped to destroy the Spanish Armada. And wind is no less determining of our inner lives: the föhn, mistral, sirocco, Santa Ana, and other "ill winds" of the world are correlated with disease, suicide, and even murder.

Heaven's Breath is an encyclopedic and enchanting book that opens dazzling new perspectives on history, nature, and humanity.

Review Quotes

"You'll learn how a thunderstorm is like a living thing, and what happens when someone's parachute is sucked into one. (Nothing good.) . . . Other parts, especially on the spread of viruses, are prescient. When travel is safe again, I'll pay fresh attention to the skies."
--Thomas Lotito, The New York Times

"Collectors of curious bits of information and odd statistics will find Heaven's Breath a gold mine. . . . Mr. Watson discusses the wind's role in geology, plant and animal evolution, cultural history, trade, health, mythology, art, literature and language."
--Patricia T. O'Conner, The New York Times

"This is the kind of book that answers dozens of questions first arising in childhood and lingering unresolved until there was Lyall Watson. . . . Watson's pot-pourri of wind poetry, wind jokes and wind facts is so diverting that one hardly minds losing the thread now and then."
--Dennis Drabelle, The Washington Post

"[Heaven's Breath], both perplexing and delightful, is appealing precisely because of how unclassifiable it is. . . . [Watson's] sense of scale, connection, and surprise invite a deeper consideration of our entanglement with our surroundings. If wind is an original, invisible force around us, a force that's nearly spiritual, perhaps it can help us think more carefully about radical shifts in climate, and about the interstitial truths that can't always be grasped by blandly stating the facts."
--David Wallace, The New Yorker

"Watson's masterpiece is an erudite and enjoyable compendium of wind-lore, science, myth, history and the occasional joke. . . . Watson delights as much in retelling myths and in conveying the religious significance various cultures have invested in this silent, life-sustaining emissary as he does in cataloging how various plants pollinate with the assistance of the wind."
--Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Light

"A comprehensive and fascinating study."
--Bernard Levin, The Observer, Bernard Levin's 1984 Book of the Year

"A book which fascinates, delights and stimulates with a thousand fascinating facts."
--Daily Mirror

About the Author

Lyall Watson (1939-2008) was the author of such well-known books as Supernature, The Romeo Error, Gifts of Unknown Things, Lifetide, Lightning Bird, and Whales of the World. He was also a producer for BBC television, a zoo director, an expedition leader, and the Seychelles Commissioner on the International Whaling Commission.

Nick Hunt has walked and written across much of Europe. His articles have appeared in the Economist, the Guardian and other publications, and he works as a storyteller and co-editor for the Dark Mountain Project. He is the author of Walking the Woods and the Water and Where the Wild Winds Are: Walking Europe's Winds from the Pennines to Provence. He lives in Bristol, England.