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The Snow Goose 70th Anniversary Edition
GL2 7BT
Aim: Republishing the famous novella The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico, with illustrations by Peter Scott, in celebration of WWT’s 70th Anniversary
The Snow Goose
A novella no thicker than a love letter, in which every sentence seems to shiver with the salt-laden chill of the desolate landscape in which it is set.
It is a love story between an uneducated village girl who comes to visit the hunchback outcast artist in his lighthouse bearing a wounded snow goose for him to heal is so well-known, perhaps because of its fable-like quality. The silence and growing sympathy of the first two-thirds of the novella, broken only by the cries of the wild birds, is in stark contrast to the noisy clamour of the conclusion, related entirely in dialogue between soldiers in the pub and officers in their club, who witnessed the man in his little boat and his heroic attempts to rescue the stranded men from the Dunkirk beaches.
It has been hugely influential to work over the years and we believe it still has the power to inspire today:• Michael Morpurgo cites it as an influence on War Horse• The inspiration for William Fiennes’ The Snow Geese• Lisa Allardice’s Guardian Winter Reads 2011 - “It may not be free from sentimentality, but this sad, sweet tale has an elemental power that makes it soar”
Peter Scott
Peter Scott was the father of modern conservation founding WWF, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species & WWT, whose 70th anniversary is this year.
Not only did he illustrate the best selling 1946 edition, but he also inspired the book itself as an Olympic medallist in sailing who kept a wildfowl collection at his lighthouse before the war and served at sea during it.
Why do we want to do this?
Today we face a global extinction crisis. We aim to use the media to tell a strong story about the link between the book, Scott’s life in his lighthouse and our generation’s wetland conservation challenges while also raising funds to help tackle them.
How will the money be used?
By supporting our crowd funding you will be helping to cover the publication costs for a print run of 5,000 copies of The Snow Goose from which we aim to raise £50,000 in sales towards the conservation and education work of both WWT and Snowgoose Wildlife Trust!
The Scott Family and Gallico Estates have donated the rights to produce this edition and Michael Morpurgo offered a new foreword. The books will be sold through WWT Centres and we have already gained support from a major high street retailer.
Now we need you to be the first to be part of our campaign to make it happen!