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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: Fire Season

Book of the Week: Fire Season: Episode 1

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Drama: Biographical

Fire Season

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Fire Season, Episode 1

Philip Connors' enchanting notes from a wilderness lookout as he watches for wildfires.

4 Extra Debut. Philip Connor's enchanting notes from his tiny American wilderness lookout as he watches for wildfires. Read by Kerry Shale.

Written by Philip Connor. Abridged by Jane Marshall.

For nearly a decade, Philip Connors has spent half of each year in a 7 foot by 7 foot room at the top of a tower, on top of a mountain, alone in millions of acres of remote American wilderness. His job: to look for wildfires. 

Capturing the wonder and grandeur of this most unusual job and place, Fire Season evokes both the eerie pleasure of solitude and the majesty, might and beauty of untamed fire at its wildest. Connors' time on the peak is filled with drama - there are fires large and small; spectacular midnight lightning storms and silent mornings awakening above the clouds; surprise encounters with smokejumpers and black bears. Filled with Connors' heartfelt reflections on our place in the wild, Fire Season is an instant modern classic: a remarkable memoir that is at once a homage to the beauty of nature, the blessings of solitude, and the freedom of the independent spirit. 

Read by Kerry Shale 


Produced by Jane Marshall 
A Jane Marshall Production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Philip Connors' enchanting notes from a wilderness lookout as he watches for wildfires

Philip Connors spends half of each year in a tiny room at the top of a tower, on top of a mountain, alone in millions of acres of American wilderness, watching for wildfires

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