“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.
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.
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 …
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 more reading first!
In the past few years I have heard Robert Macfarlane's name mentioned frequently as a nature writer 'must read', so I was happy to finally get round to sampling what he had to offer. He does indeed write finely and conveys a real sense of the landscapes that he describes. I have been lucky enough to visit many of the places he describes, perhaps not exactly but close by, in the same landscape, which adds a particular poignancy to his tales. He has a poetic turn of speech, "bleak comes from Old Norse... meaning 'white', .. a word through which the bone shows", for instance, is a typically memorable phrase. Other aspects I find harder to relate to; sleeping in a tent is close enough to nature for me, bivvy bags don't really appeal, let alone swimming in freezing cold waters. On the other hand, although it is a long …
In the past few years I have heard Robert Macfarlane's name mentioned frequently as a nature writer 'must read', so I was happy to finally get round to sampling what he had to offer. He does indeed write finely and conveys a real sense of the landscapes that he describes. I have been lucky enough to visit many of the places he describes, perhaps not exactly but close by, in the same landscape, which adds a particular poignancy to his tales. He has a poetic turn of speech, "bleak comes from Old Norse... meaning 'white', .. a word through which the bone shows", for instance, is a typically memorable phrase. Other aspects I find harder to relate to; sleeping in a tent is close enough to nature for me, bivvy bags don't really appeal, let alone swimming in freezing cold waters. On the other hand, although it is a long time since I last climbed a tree, I now wonder why it has been so long. I'm in agreement with the author that beech trees are the best for climbing, anyway. I do have one reservation. All those hidden places inside hedges and in isolated valleys are refuges for wildlife, and it is perhaps better to leave them be rather than invade them for our own pleasure and curiosity. But I suppose that no matter how enticingly he writes, not many people will follow his example, so it is probably ok.
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.
