In this book Robert MacFarlane takes us on a tour of the British Isles looking for our remaining wild places. He starts by seeking out wildnerness, remote areas of wild weather and (relatively) untouched nature, camping on ice and mountain peaks.
He soon comes to realise though that wild places aren't just wilderness, but those areas where nature reclaims the land from humans:
That margins should be a redoubt of wildness, I knew, was proof of the devastation of the land: the extent to which nature had been squeezed to the territlry's edges, repressed almost to extinction. But it seemed like proof, as well, of the resilience of the wild - of its instinct for resurgence, its irrepressibility. And a recognition that wildness weaved with the human world, rather than existing only in cleaved off areas, in National Parks and on distant peninsulas and peaks.....
This is a book to open readers' eyes to the wildness that is all around as well as an introduction to some of the most remote areas of wilderness left in our islands.
The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane, published by Granta
The author Robert MacFarlane recently wrote a brilliant article about wilderness and language, which you can read here.
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It's World Book Day today - a celebration of reading and an opportunity to encourage children and young people to develop a reading habit!
5 comments:
Nice piece, Juliet. I'm waiting for the arrival of Robert MacFarlane's "Landmarks", anytime now.
This is a great book - beautifully written and not as 'macho' as some of his. I've never met him but he was a great friend and protege of my old buddy, the late Roger Deakin, who sadly died after producing just two iconic books - Waterlog and Wildwood - but whose posthumously published Notes From Walnut Tree Farm were edited by MacFarlane and are well worth a read.
Good Morning, great review. I would like to read this book myself..Have a happy day!
Sounds like a book to read before I make a return trip to the UK...
Happy world book day, Juliet
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