The Wild Places

by Robert Macfarlane

Paperback, 340 pages

English language

Published Dec. 30, 2010 by Granta Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-84708-200-8
OCLC Number:: 551400642

(9 reviews)

“An eloquent (and compulsively readable) reminder that, though we’re laying waste the world, nature still holds sway over much of the earth’s surface. ”—Bill McKibben Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? That is the question that Robert Macfarlane poses to himself as he embarks on a series of breathtaking journeys through some of the archipelago’s most remarkable landscapes. He climbs, walks, and swims by day and spends his nights sleeping on cliff-tops and in ancient meadows and wildwoods. With elegance and passion he entwines history, memory, and landscape in a bewitching evocation of wildness and its vital importance. A unique travelogue that will intrigue readers of natural history and adventure, The Wild Places solidifies Macfarlane’s reputation as a young writer to watch.

5 editions

The Weaver Reads reviewed The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane

Goodreads Review of The Wild Places

4 stars

The Wild Places is a lyrical rumination on, well, the wild. Macfarlane travels through a number of places through the UK, and reflects on the way the wild has "disappeared" (or has not, in fact, at all). I don't know many of the places listed here, but I loved the anecdotes--monadism based on lozenges and waves; reflections on the moors and the deserts of Libya; the Wild Hunt; monasteries in the far north. It's such a beautiful piece of writing, and I learned a lot.

Stephanie Jane reviewed The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane

An inspirational read

5 stars

If you are looking to get out into nature this summer before Michael Gove does away with Britain's natural world altogether, allow yourself to be inspired by The Wild Places. I loved immersing myself in MacFarlane's descriptions of the wild places he visited around Britain and Ireland, finding this book even more inspirational that the previous one of his I read, The Old Ways. While I don't think I'm personally up to sleeping out on iced over tarns, I would love to discover for myself some of the places he so eloquently describes.

My only real disappointment with this book, which may be more true in the Kindle version I read than for a paper version, is that the text suddenly ends at around 77% to be followed by an extensive bibliography and index. I've now several further titles to search out, but I mistakenly thought I still had hours …

Didactylos reviewed The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane

Review of 'The Wild Places' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A book I very nearly gave up on, the start is so much the opposite of me with its climbing, walking at night over moorland, sleeping out in the middle of the natural world.

I am glad I did not give up, at times its poetic, at times its incredibly informative - Macfarlane interweaves some superb stories into the narrative framework - that of the potato famine being the most chilling.

An excellent reminder of what we are losing in our world.