SOPHIE TOSCAN DU PLANTIER (NÉE BOUNIOL) was a French television producer whose love of West Cork became a defining part of her life. Having first visited Ireland as a teenager, she developed a deep affection for its landscape, people and culture. In 1993 she bought a cottage at Toormore, looking south towards Mizen Lighthouse, as a holiday retreat where she could escape Paris and immerse herself in the tranquillity of rural Cork. She embraced the solitude and beauty of Schull and the Mizen Peninsula where she made her second home.
DERMOT FLYNN is an Irish artist and illustrator whose work has featured in The New Yorker, Vogue, The Irish Times, and The Guardian. Drawing inspiration from Ireland's history, folklore, humour, and everyday life, his work has received numerous awards, including the Macmillan Prize for Illustration, a Silver at Cannes Lions, and an An Post Irish Book Award.
LARA MARLOWE is a Paris-based author and journalist who was France correspondent for The Irish Times from 1996 until 2023. She has published five books, most recently How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying: Lieutenant Yulia Mykytenko's Fight for Ukraine and Love in a Time of War: My Years with Robert Fisk
Love of the Land is a remarkable literary discovery: a previously unpublished work by Sophie Toscan du Plantier, written during her time on the wild Atlantic coast of West Cork. In these luminous and deeply personal reflections, Sophie turns her attentive gaze towards the natural world, finding wonder in sheep and cattle, wind and weather, sea cliffs and open skies. Observing the landscape with rare sensitivity, she explores belonging, solitude, memory and humanity's enduring relationship with the land.
Part nature writing, part meditation, Love of the Land reveals a gifted and original voice, alive to the rhythms of rural life and the profound beauty of the Irish landscape that captivated her.
Published for the first time after her untimely death, this wonderous book has been translated from the original French by Lara Marlowe and beautifully illustrated by award-winning Irish illustrator and children's author Dermot Flynn. This edition offers readers the opportunity to encounter Sophie Toscan du Plantier not as a headline, but as a writer of exceptional insight, warmth and imagination.
