Landmarks
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE
From the bestselling author of UNDERLAND, THE OLD WAYS and THE LOST WORDS
'Few books give such a sense of enchantment; it is a book to give to many, and to return to repeatedly' Independent
'Enormously pleasurable, deeply moving. A bid to save our rich hoard of landscape language, and a blow struck for the power of a deep creative relationship to place' Financial Times
'A book that ought to be read by policymakers, educators, armchair environmentalists and active conservationists the world over' Guardian
'Gorgeous, thoughtful and lyrical' Independent on Sunday
'Feels as if [it] somehow grew out of the land itself. A delight' Sunday Times
Discover Robert Macfarlane's joyous meditation on words, landscape and the relationship between the two.
Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place. It is a field guide to the literature of nature, and a glossary containing thousands of remarkable words used in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales to describe land, nature and weather.
Travelling from Cumbria to the Cairngorms, and exploring the landscapes of Roger Deakin, J. A. Baker, Nan Shepherd and others, Robert Macfarlane shows that language, well used, is a keen way of knowing landscape, and a vital means of coming to love it.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You’ll see the landscapes around you in a brand-new way after reading this thoughtful meditation on what it means to talk and write about the natural world. Author Robert Macfarlane dives deep into the distinctive vocabulary used to describe the unique sights and sounds of the British countryside. He showcases the words used by famed writers, from J. A. Baker’s poetic descriptions of peregrine falcons to Roger Deakin’s descriptive tales of wild swimming. A glossary follows each chapter, defining each of the unfamiliar landscape terms used. Landmarks is a fantastic way to grow your own vocabulary—and a calming read that’ll paint pictures in your mind.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Macfarlane's (The Old Ways) beautifully written blend of nature writing and lexicon connects the work of his favorite writers to the British Isles' natural settings and the distinctive, lyrical vocabulary used to describe them. Each chapter is devoted to a different landform (such as flatlands, coastlands, and woodlands) and followed by a glossary of relevant terminology. The featured authors include "word-hoarder" Nan Shepherd, whose book The Living Mountain has its own lengthy glossary of colorful Scots words, such as "roarie-bummlers" (fast-moving storm clouds); and "water-man" Roger Deakin, whose book Waterlog, about his experiences swimming around the United Kingdom, unearthed archaic words such as dook (a swim in open water) and tarn (an upland pool or small lake.) The sources of the words in the glossaries are as diverse as the British landscape: works by famous wordsmiths such as Gerard Manley Hopkins and John Clare, as well as the various cultures, regions, and languages of Great Britain. Macfarlane bemoans the gradual disappearance of these colorful descriptors from modern usage, resulting in a "blandscape" of general terms. It would be fabulous if his wish in writing this exceptional compilation for these words to "re-wild" contemporary speech comes true.
