Back cover text:

Every spring has its own song - from potent legendary wells to inspiring new sources. Listening to the voice of each one, world renowned poet Valerie Gillies composed a new poem to fit. The Spring Teller records the author's remarkable journey across Scotland, which took over three years and included visits to over a hundred springs. Each thought-provoking poem mirrors the flow of the water, from still wells locked in the inner city to the free-flowing springs of mountain or glen. In ten sections Gillies' poetry captures the mineral properties of these springs and explores them as sites of healing and cleansing, as places of pilgrimage and modern meetings, of connection between human and nature and, through her own form of poetic environmental activism, expresses how we should preserve these natural wonders.

The Spring Teller contains an intriguing introduction, landmark poems and a new map to help the reader visit these memorable places, while the photographs show the beauty of each spring. This book is a unique guide to the locations of springs in Scotland, their history and folklore and an exploration of their mysterious properties.

Reviews:

What surprises and continually delights in this collection is its constantly renewed freshness of observation and language, like looking through a clear and powerful lens, which lets us move through the experience of the well with the poet.   Edinburgh Review